I believe you, Miker! You have indeed changed since that sorrow visited you. There is less of a hurriedness with you now in addition to what I can only describe as an other-worldly wisdom in your posts - yet always an abiding humility too.
waiting for results. They removed 11 polyps last year. Not cancer. Removed 13 on Friday, so waiting for the results. ugh. It's always something. I wish I could drink beer! Can't have any alcohol, I'm on anti seizure meds for epilepsy. I got the cess pool of the gene pool!
Speaking of vocations and ordinations to the priesthood… I’m blessed to have had ans still have a close friendship with an 86-year-old Franciscan friar from our monastery. He comes from a family of eight children, three brothers and four sisters. All of them, except for one brother, entered religious life. Two of the brothers are Dominicans, and he is a Franciscan, all sister are nuns. He is also the youngest, and four of them are still alive. Honestly, he’s like a living saint. I’ve mentioned before that I prayed for the intercession of Father Ante Antić I even wrote about him. He was a holy man with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, lived until 1965. Padre Pio would often rebuke Croatians (since we are neighboring Italy), asking why they came to him when they had Father Antonio in Croatia. Father Antić could read hearts and had gifts like prophecy, bilocation, and more. To keep it short there was a serious illness in my family, and I prayed intensely through Father Antić’s intercession. I came to our church, needing a Franciscan for a family member. That same 86-year-old friar came to our home. I won’t name the illness, but as a medical professional, I can tell you the chance of survival was probably less than 0.01%. The very day he arrived, the fever disappeared. He came at 10 p.m., and the joy in the house is impossible to describe. He shared stories from his youth. Since he resembled Father Antić, I showed him a picture and said he reminded me of him, asking if he had ever heard of him. He replied literally that as a boy, he used to light the stove in Antic's room. He had studied in the place where Father Antić would come to rest in his later years in the local monestery. He told me that one day, while he was lighting the stove, Father Antić called him over, pointed at him, confessed his sins out loud, and then said: “You will become a priest a Franciscan. You will have a difficult path in your studies and pastoral life, but you will be a priest.” And that’s exactly what happened. He went through a real “Way of the Cross” during his formation and was ordained only in his early thirties. He jokes that he became a priest when he was already an “old donkey.” He endured the hardships of communism as a priest, and later the Croatian War of Independence, where he served on one of the worst front lines places where people and entire families were forced to walk through minefields. He was among the first to return, even before the army dared. He would regularly celebrate early morning Mass at 7 a.m. with another friar in his nineties. In the evenings, he would hear confessions often around 30 people each day, assist with Holy Communion, visit hospitals to administer the Anointing of the Sick, and bring Communion. If you called him at 3 a.m. in -10°C, he would come just as he would at midnight in +40°C. I often stand outside during weekday Mass because it’s crowded, but we have speakers outside. After hearing confessions, I’d see him heading toward the hospital. Once,, I asked, “Father, aren’t you cold?” He smiled and said, “It’s warm in the grave. ” Another time, I told him to get some rest. He smiled again and said, “I’ll rest in the grave,” and kept going . Sadly, confirming his pastoral cross, he was transferred to another monastery for 22 time and retirement home just two days before Christmas, after spending entire days hearing confessions and celebrating Masses, including the early Advent “Rorate” Masses at 6 a.m. Hundreds of people waited to say goodbye, and most didn't know he was leaving... I’ve already visited him several times. It’s a home for Franciscans within a large monastery. Each visit turns into a few hours of conversation. It reminds me of what people said about Pope Benedict XVI you feel as if you’re the only person in the world, as if all his attention is given just to you. There’s something supernatural about it, and yet everything is so human and down-to-earth at the same time. It’s hard to describe… Anyway, what I wanted to say is that he himself mentioned that, in his family, they had been praying for generations( over 100 years) for a priest. In the end, out of the eight of them, as many as seven entered religious life. A holy and very simple family.
I thought we were going to stay away from politics and demonizing people. I’m starting to not read as much as I used to
When you’re young and a student, like I was a few years ago, you grow up on stories about Father Ante Antić, Padre Pio, Andre Bessette and in the end, even in America you had Solanus Casey… Father Ante Antić often helped students in a very concrete way he would open a book and tell them exactly what material they would be examined on, but he still expected them to study. To many, he showed their future spouses and helped them in such matters. You tend to chase those more superficial things. But in my case, Father Ante Antić answered my prayers not in those superficial ways, but in a long and serious illness, and he sent me “his” priest—the one whose life he had once foretold… And then you realize that the holiness of these people was not in those gifts. That part is empty and superficial something that attracts us to faith because it is supernatural. But their true holiness, just like that of the friar I mentioned earlier, lies in a constant sacrifice out of love for God and for others—year after year, month after month, day after day… From such people, you never hear that something hurts them, that they are hungry, thirsty, or that they can’t go on… It’s always others first. They always have time. They comfort those who are healthier than themselves. They live that God-given love for everyone, at every moment. Their holiness is in that constant love for every person. They will never refuse you whether for confession, a visit, or a conversation. The human person always comes first. That is what made them holy… Once, the superior of the monastery became upset with Father Antić because of the constant lines of people, even when he was often ill and in need of help himself. And Father Antić said to him: “Let the people come. Even Christ, when He fell under the cross, comforted the women how then could I refuse?
