I want to say "thank you" to all who were so generous while I was in the U.S.  The dollar amount of the donations was enough to fill and mail 14 packages of medicines for the sick poor in this village. This morning I will be going  'downtown' to purchase the Rx medicines that are needed for the work.
Special thanks to Father Steven Gemme of St. Bernadette's parish in Northborough, MA. Father gave me the opportunity to speak at all masses for Sunday, 23 December, 2012 and then took a second collection. The congregation gave in areal spirit of love.

Today I will begin to put the second reading from the Liturgy of the hours........having been off line for nearly 3 months.

My trip to the US enabled me to have my feet 'repaired' and then I had surgery for a torn and detached Rotator cuff and Biceps tendon. The shoulder is healing quickly, thanks be to God.

Again, I send you all my thanks, love and prayers.

Please take note that Bob Shrigley who has been accepting donations for the work has moved from New Mexico to Louisiana.

Anyone prompted by the Lord to make a donation can send it to:

Brother Dismas Mary
c/o Robert Shrigley
339 Monarch Drive
Houma, Louisiana       70364












                                        A discourse on the Theophany by pseudo-Hippolytus

Water and the Spirit

That Jesus should come and be baptized by John is surely cause for amazement. To think of the infinite river that gladdens the city of God being bathed in a poor little stream; of the eternal and unfathomable fountainhead that gives life to all men being immersed in the shallow waters of this transient world!

  He who fills all creation, leaving no place devoid of his presence, he who is incomprehensible to the angels and hidden from the sight of man, came to be baptized because it was his will. And behold, the heavens opened and a voice said: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

  The beloved Father begets love, and the immaterial Light generates light inaccessible. This is he who was called the son of Joseph and in his divine nature is my only Son.

  This is my beloved Son. Though hungry himself, he feeds thousands; though weary, he refreshes those who labour. He has no place to lay his head yet he holds all creation in his hand. By his suffering he heals all sufferings; by receiving a blow on the cheek he gives the world its liberty; by being pierced in the side he heals the wound in Adam’s side.

  And now, please pay close attention, for I want to return to that fountain of life and contemplate its healing waters as they gush out.

  The Father of immortality sent his immortal Son and Word into the world, to come to us men and cleanse us with water and the Spirit. To give us a new birth that would make our bodies and souls immortal, he breathed into us the spirit of life and armed us with incorruptibility. Now if we become immortal, we shall also be divine; and if we become divine after rebirth in baptism through water and the Holy Spirit, we shall also be heirs along with Christ, after the resurrection of the dead.

  So I cry out, like a herald: Let peoples of every nation come and receive the immortality that flows from baptism. This is the water that is linked to the Spirit, the water that irrigates Paradise, makes the earth fertile, gives growth to plants, and brings forth living creatures. In short, this is the water by which a man receives new birth and life, the water in which even Christ was baptized, the water into which the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove.

  Whoever goes down into these waters of rebirth with faith renounces the devil and pledges himself to Christ. He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is God, throws off his servitude and becomes an adopted son. He comes up from baptism resplendent as the sun and radiating purity and, above all, he comes as a son of God and a co-heir with Christ.

  To him be glory and power, to him and his most holy, good and life-giving Spirit, both now and for ever. Amen.