by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 28, 2011 · 21 comments
. . . A “cup o’kindness” in the Scotish tradition is usually something with the words “single malt” imprinted on the label. That, too, is not possible in prison. But I have some Starbucks coffee I’ve been saving, and I plan to brew it on New Year’s Eve. I’ll have a cup o’that in honor of you, the friends I have met on this long and winding road. These Stone Walls is such a strange and unlikely place, yet it exists, and from it every week you let me reach into your hearts in friendship, and with a shared vision of grace at work in our world. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 21, 2011 · 18 comments
. . . But this morning, my Japanese friend, Koji, stopped by with some coffee he brewed using an old sock. (Trust me, you don’t want the gory details!). Koji handed me a cup – it’s pretty good, actually – and asked, “What can you tell me about the Magi?” That was odd because I’ve been thinking of writing about the Magi for Christmas. I told Koji I’ll let him read this post when finished. Maybe he’ll bring me more coffee made with that old sock of his. Lord, give me the strength to bear my blessings! Anyway, there’s no better place to begin the Magi story than St. Matthew’s own words: . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 14, 2011 · 20 comments
. . . Offering Mass in a prison cell is a little like offering Mass in a battlefield. We don’t have the luxury of an altar, and must make do with what we’ve got – which isn’t much. In the middle of the floor in this eight-by-twelve-foot cell are two concrete stumps that protrude about two feet out of the concrete floor. Just inches to one side of my stump is an iron bunk, and inches to the other side is a concrete counter protruding sixteen inches from the stone cell wall. At first, I offered Mass sitting on the concrete stump with my Mass kit spread at the edge of my bunk. One of my treasures is a Hammond World Atlas. Whenever TSW readers post comments that mention where they are, Pornchai and I like to find their town or city in the Atlas. So far, we have had readers from 31 countries. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 7, 2011 · 19 comments
. . . My call to action is as simple as that. Help us spread news of this book. Consider giving it to the priests you know. Consider reading it yourself. Above all, encourage the priests you know and make them a part of your daily prayer. And there is another way you can help, especially now as we prepare to revisit my own case for a possible new appeal in the new year. If you like this post – or any other – you can help by tweeting it, pinging it, sending a link to your e-mail contacts, Facebook pages, and posting the link in comments on other blogs and Catholic websites. There is a viral effect among faithful Catholics, and its power should not be overlooked. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on November 30, 2011 · 13 comments
. . . But Josephine never ceased to pray for John Wayne and his conversion, and she never married again until after his death. In 1978, a year before John Wayne died, her prayer was answered and he was received into the Catholic Church. His conversion came late in his life, but John Wayne stood before Hollywood and declared that the secular Hollywood portrayal of the Catholic Church and faith is a lie, and the truth is to be found in conversion. That conversion had many repercussions. Not least among them was the depth to which it inspired John Wayne’s 14-year old grandson, Matthew, who today presents the story of his grandfather’s conversion as one of the proudest events of his life and the beginning of his vocation as a priest. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on November 23, 2011 · 4 comments
. . . This is the little known story of Squanto, and of how he saved the day for the pilgrims and strangers in this strange land who ventured here to be forever rid of the remnants of Catholicism in the Church of England. It’s a story of how Catholic respect for human life reached across entire oceans and continents to save a man’s life so he could in turn save others. It’s a story of the triumph of grace and the twists and turns of a human soul venturing toward God. And if the Pilgrims knew a Pope was involved, they might just have climbed back aboard the Mayflower. This is an account of Thanksgiving we hope you will want to pass along to others, and include in your own Thanksgiving celebration. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on November 16, 2011 · 16 comments
. . . From an analysis of typical comments in Catholic media, it might appear that a lot of people have ongoing and extremely negative views about Catholic priests. That may not be the case. What’s really going on is that a relatively small number of crusaders are “seeding” the Internet with their comments. If you take the time – and have the stomach for it – to track comments throughout the catholic on-line world, and at mainstream media articles about the Catholic scandal, you’ll see the same few screen names over and over. They seem to be everywhere, and Chris Tressa ran into one of them. They are on a very personal crusade, but what makes this so personal for them? As Chris Tressa asked, “Who does that?” . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on November 9, 2011 · 23 comments
. . . I have believed from the outset that the hype about all this has little to do with Father Frank Pavone and Bishop Zurek. It has to do with Priests for Life and its vocally Catholic pro-life stance. There is an agenda out there – an agenda with tentacles that have reached deeply into the arena of Catholic life – that would be encouraged by the diminishment or outright destruction of the Church’s pro-life ministry. In this entire matter, it is not only Father Pavone whose reputation is on the line. It is also the Church’s pro-life stance, consistently undermined by those who want compromise with a secular agenda in the culture war. The demise of Priests for Life would be a great trophy for that agenda. I am no conspiracy theorist, but I can’t help notice that this story is unfolding nationally just as a Presidential Primary is taking shape, and the culture war is gearing up for battle. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on November 2, 2011 · 23 comments
. . . Okay, I’ll admit that sounds a little weird. It isn’t as though seventeen years in prison has conditioned me for ever more punishment. I do not find punishment to be addictive at all, especially when I did not commit the crime. The punishment of Purgatory, however, is something I know I cannot evade. The intense suffering of Purgatory is entirely a spiritual suffering, and it begins with our experience of death right here. The longing with which we sometimes agonize over the loss of those we love is but a shadow of something spiritual we have yet to share with them: The Holy Longing they must endure as they await being in the Presence of God. That Holy Longing is Purgatory. It is the delay of the beatific vision for which we were created, and that delay and its longing is a suffering greater than we can imagine. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on October 26, 2011 · 12 comments
. . . I was sitting in a county jail awaiting sentencing to prison. I was cut off from everyone. My Diocese would not even accept my collect calls. My own lawyers told me I had no choice. What meager assets I had were exhausted on the first trial. So, post-trial, I entered into what I called – then and now – “a negotiated lie.” It was a lie that was extorted from me, but the lie was not mine alone. If you’ve read my post, “The High Cost of Innocence,” you know that even then the pressure never ended. Prison itself has any number of sanctions to further punish those who do not admit guilt. I spent five years confined to a cell housing seven other prisoners because I would not admit guilt. The notion that men in prison always claim to be innocent is a myth. There are dire consequences for such a claim. . . .
