St John Bosco

St. Bosco, whose feast we celebrate today, was an Italian priest of the late 19th century.  He educated boys, and was determined not to use the harsh methods and corporal punishment which were the education methods of his day.

He was patient, kind and loving to his pupils and went on to found the Salesian Fathers and Sisters, who continue to work in education.

I found the following story at the blog: Angels and Saints and The Rest Of Us, which I thought was charming!  I love the idea of a dog guardian angel!

Check out this blog for more stories about the saints!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

St. John Bosco and the Big Gray Dog

On various occasions throughout his life, St. John Bosco found himself aided by a mysterious, yet gentle and loyal, large gray dog. The dog would appear unbidden when St. John was passing through dangerous neighborhoods, traveling on foot through the dark countryside, or, most famously, once when attacked by thugs. (The dog chased the thugs away after giving them a good scare with his not-so-little teeth.) St. John called his intermittent companion Il Grigio, Italian for "The Gray One."

A mysteriously as he appeared, the dog would trot away after accomplishing his duty. Not once did St. John ever see the dog take food or water. And on at least one occasion, the dog somehow disappeared from a cottage in which all the doors and windows were shut.

St. John had no doubt as to the origin of his furry friend: "It sounds ridiculous to call him an angel, yet he is no ordinary dog." Indeed, the saint firmly believed that had it not been for the big gray dog, his work would have been severely hindered, if not stopped altogether.

John Bosco, of course, went on to institute and organize the Salesians, a religious order for men and women under the patronage of St. Francis de Sales. Il Grigio reportedly retained a fondness for the Salesians long after John Bosco left the world. Between 1893 and 1930, sisters of the Salesian order testified that they had received the gray dog's protection on at least three separate occasions.

(A summary of information from Partners in Holiness: Guardian Angels in the Lives of the Saints)

St. Francis of Assisi, I'm Not

We were awakened by a curious noise this morning at 4:00.  Beans was in the living room.  She had knocked over the newspaper basket by the fireplace, tipped over the antique metal teapot and its wrought iron stand on the hearth and was scratching at the red metal bucket that we put kindling (and the leftover decorative pine cones and candle stubs for fire starters) in.  Charles got up and took her upstairs to Miguel's room.  I was wide awake by that time and came out to the living room to await the dawn.  I was starting to snooze on the couch when I heard noises coming from the red bucket and realized that THERE WAS A MOUSE IN THERE.  When Charles got up at 6, I told him about it and he said that he would take care of it after he had a cup of tea.  I suggested starting a fire and dumping the bucket into the woodstove.  He looked horrified and said that it was a bit early in the morning for an auto-da-fe.  (This was an hysteria-induced response.  I would never, NEVER, burn any living creature alive).

I suggested putting the bucket outside.  He said that the poor little mouse would be unable to get out of the bucket and would freeze to death.  He suggested that we dump the bucket out in the yard, so that it could find shelter.  I said that the "poor little mouse, my ass" would just come back into the house.

The only other choice was to rescue and rehabilitate it, which is not really an option.

We compromised by dumping the bucket in the yard, but as far away as possible, so that the mouse will have a fighting chance, but will still have to traverse the snowy dog yard to get back to the house, dodging the hazards of both Beans and Frida on the way.  (Personally, I think death by fire a la Joan of Arc, is a quicker, more merciful way to die than freezing to death or being ripped apart in the slavering jaws of a Westie and Dachshund.)  The last we saw of the mouse it was running around in a crazed circle on top of the snow, before darting under the fence, hopefully on the way to a neighbor's warm house, and not getting ready to double back into ours.

Charles told me that my suggestions were hardly reminiscent of "Brother Sun, Sister Moon".  And I told HIM that when it comes to vermin, my love for little furry animals flies out the window.  I didn't expect the little thing to suffer, however, I did, to quote Goldfinger, "expect it to DIE".

I took the following series of photos, all the while shrieking: "Hold the bucket level - don't let it jump out!", and, "Oh, God!  Oh, God!  That's disgusting!", and "Oh ick!  Don't let it jump out!"  My logical mind assured me that the mouse would have to be the rodent equivalent of Michael Jordan to jump out of the bucket, but I am completely illogical when it comes to mice in the house.

Where is it?

Where is it?

Oh, #)*&!  There it is!

Fuzzy picture taken while screaming.

Yeah, you just TRY to look cute - it won't work with me, no sir!

Six Degrees

I'm sitting in my not so warm house, grateful for a roof over my head.  

Charles and I spent the day conducting intake interviews at the third annual Project Homeless Connect event, which brings poor folks together with service providers (social services, housing, substance abuse counseling, mental health and medical health providers and a myriad of others).

I interviewed about 30 folks and Charles interviewed about 20.  Some were elderly, some were young folks with kids, a lot were veterans, some were mentally ill, some were disabled, and more than a few were inebriated.  Almost all of them were either homeless or soon to be.

The event offered them, in addition to the services provided, a warm dry place to be for the day, with nonstop hot coffee, fruit, baked goods for breakfast, a hot meal at noon (cooked by the Glory Hole, a local homeless shelter), and a large number of volunteers to chat with.

Charles did some spiritual counseling as well as interviewing.

The Juneau Homeless Coalition did a great job with this event, designed to not only pair up the homeless with needed services, but to find out how many there are out there for funding purposes.

We woke up today to extremely cold temperatures and high winds.   The temperature right now (5:31 p.m.) is 6 degrees F.  The wind is howling, which means the wind chill is probably about 20 below zero. 

So right now, in Juneau and Douglas, there are folks outside, huddling, trying to get out of the wind.  People, some with kids, crashing in someone's living room until they are asked to move on by friends or family members, mentally ill folks who are so difficult, scary or unpredictable or alcoholics so drunk that they are not allowed to be in the available shelters to ensure the safety of the other patrons.  The shelters are packed to capacity, including the family emergency shelter. 

And it is 6, six, SIX degrees outside, and with the wind, it feels like 20 below.

Photo courtesy of Lou Ann Gagne

Beautiful.  Deadly.

Seriously, Is This Cute, Or What?

Yesterday, these little lambs were presented to Pope Benedict XVI for the Feast of St. Agnes ("Agnes" means "lamb", as in "Agnus Dei").

Two little lambs are given to the Holy Father every year on this feast.  One wears a crown of white flowers to symbolize purity, and the other wears a wreath of red flowers to signify St. Agnes' martyrdom.

And, in case you are wondering, they DON'T become the Pope's Easter dinner.  They are shorn of their wool, which is then spun and woven by the Sisters of St. Cecelia into palliums, the stole traditionally presented to archbishops by the Holy Father.

I assume that they then are free to gambol about in a sunny, wildflower-filled meadow for the rest of their days!

Grow Your Blog Party

Well - I just found this opportunity to have a zillion people look at my blog - so I thought I would join in!  There is a Grow Your Blog party at Two Bags Full - go check it out, and enjoy reading all the different bloggers that have joined in!

But before you do, read my profile to learn about me and why I started blogging at Home In Douglas.

And, if you leave a comment by February 14th, you can win a giveaway of a lovely, handcrafted icon prayer shrine, featuring a reproduction of a hand painted icon by Charles!

The Best Laid Plans

Remember all those projects I was going to accomplish while Charles was on his trip?

Well, here we are at day 9 of his absence, and which of the projects have I completed?

A Big Fat Zero.

And do I feel bad?  Guilty??  Like a failure???

Nope.

Because, what I have done while he has been gone is spend some time doing things that I really love to do.

1.  Cook
2.  Eat
3.  Read
3.  Sleep

And, I also have spent some quality time with my 20 year old son, who started his second semester of his junior year at the University of Alaska Southeast on Monday.  I had a strong temptation to walk to his classroom and take a picture of him at his desk, or give him an apple for his professor, but I restrained myself.

I did manage to clean up my bedroom and do some laundry.

I might even manage to put the laundry away this weekend.

I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I have to attend to some important tasks...

Mary and Jesus Watch Over The Snowy Yard

I went for a little walk today, just down to the library to return some books.  On my way home, I stopped in to our little local cafe to get a snack.  As I walked through the snow, I was struck by the beauty of the day, the snow on the trees and the mountains.  Even though there is a lot of snow on the ground, it isn't too difficult to walk.  The snow makes it much easier for my boots to grip the ground, thus I had my eyes up rather than at my feet looking for potential hazards.

As I came through our gate, I glanced at our snowy yard, and noticed how pretty the Shrine Charles put up in our Mary Garden looks with snow on the little roof, so I whipped out my phone and took a picture.  Not the best resolution, you can't see the details of the icon, and I cropped it so our neighbor, who was shoveling snow in his driveway wouldn't be in the picture, but it's not a bad picture, for a quick snapshot!

I'm linking up to Sunny Simple Sundays!