Well, I can no longer say I’ve never taken a vacation. I guess my column has been gone three or so weeks. I’m about half-way to my 88th birthday and I just needed a breather. I also need time to re-locate friends and relatives I have neglected for several years, too long to be satisfied with an apology. Circumstances suggested a sort of monastic structure was best for me. Now, however, I want to reconnect with my close friends and relatives while my Lord allows.
****
A brief response to Kelly Scoles’ letter.
Thank you, Kelly, for keeping your letter short. I will try to do the same in the future. With two major wars to deal with, promising escalation to global scale, raw political controversy doesn’t interest me.
I have always written Realities from a personal-conservative perspective, largely Catholic, with respect for most other points of view. But I am grounded in my religious faith and even the shrewdest logic to the contrary cannot persuade me otherwise. It should not be long before I am subjected to the four “last things”, death, judgment, Heaven or Hell. And it is perfectly appropriate for a man of my age to favor this discussion while worrying about those who choose the calamitous rejection of Almighty God. Christians are dutybound to pray for their conversion.
And so, Kelly, I can at least agree with your last sentence “…war is growing, world-wide…” while pointing out that Iran’s military has been so physically destroyed that no meaningful remnant can be found (emphasis on “meaningful”). But the Iran war will continue, joined by Russia, North Korea, and Muslim nations, ending with a tactical nuke. This, according to Marian prophecies which I find worthy of belief.
In this nation of free speech and free will I can understand why those who reject God and all spiritual and eternal things treat my beliefs as nonsense. This has always been the essential part of the eternal war around faith, reason and the Gospel. For Christians there is no contradiction here, all three manifest Truth, pointing to the Savior Jesus Christ.