Keeping Us Connected Newsletter

August 2, 2024

“A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

– Matthew 5:14

Dear Saint Mary Friends,

Let’s take a week off from highlighting the saints in our Adoration Chapel and reinforce some holy sanity.

The above picture is supposedly of a power outage in a section of Paris shortly after the blasphemous opening ceremonies at the Olympics. It shows the Basilica of Sacre Coeur as a shining light in the darkness as a response to the evil portrayed at the opening ceremonies.

Try as I might to verify its authenticity, no official word can be found. And in a sense, it doesn’t matter. Because whether or not it happened, there’s a deeper truth regarding darkness and light in our world.

It’s important we don’t dwell too much on evil, nor obsess over it. That said, it’s important for God’s people to acknowledge and name evil, and then hold up for one another our common light, grace, strength, and love in Christ.

Let’s not rehash the whole ceremony, but in case you’ve heard it was only an innocent representation of a 17^th century non-Christian painting, and not the Last Supper, take note:

The producer of the opening ceremonies said: "Thomas Jolly (the artistic director) took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting."
Barbara Butch the drag Christ figure wrote on Instagram (since taken down): YES! OH YES! THE NEW GAY TESTAMENT!”

In recent decades our default response to the drip, drip, drip degrading of humanity and religion has been mostly passive and head shaking. Things must change. If we do not defend our faith, reality, and in particular the bodily and spiritual sanctity of our children, who will? And woe to us if we do not.

In truth, I cannot find it in my heart to hate those involved in the ceremonies. They are poor souls with little to no human or spiritual formation (Who knows their personal stories?). Poor souls who most likely have no understanding of the True and Living God. As a result, the ceremonies were technically glitzy, but soul-less.

But that said, there are some who did know what they were doing. And then there’s the real perpetrator, the Father of Lies, the Deceiver, the Evil One, the Great Destroyer - the one St. Ignatius of Loyola calls “The Enemy of Human Nature.”

Our response? Along with writing to NBC, the International and U.S. Olympic Committees, and others, along with not giving our money to businesses sponsoring such things, and along with conversations with family, friends, and others, we need courage, truth telling, prayer, reparation, and fasting. In God’s loving providence, we are meant to be alive as his witnesses for this time.

An example for us all is 16 yr. old Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal, who was warned not to make a religious statement if she won a medal. She won the Bronze and right after her medal run offered a message to TV viewers in sign language: “Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (Video below)

This young Catholic young teen posted another quote on July 29 from Joshua 1:9: “Didn’t I command you? Be strong and courageous! Don’t get carried away or discouraged.”

You cannot walk through Paris without the strength and beauty of Catholic culture washing over you. It’s everywhere. The shining image of the Basilica of Sacre Coeur, whether the power outage story is true or not, carries the same message as that sent by Raissa: “Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Blessings,