Quinquagesima Sunday

 Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's

The Church's Year

The Introit of this day's Mass is the sigh of an afflicted soul confiding in God:

INTROIT Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for thou art my strength and my refuge: and for thy name's sake thou wilt be my leader, and wilt nourish me. (Fs. XXX. 3. 4.) In thee , O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice, and set me free. (Ps. XXX. 2.)

COLLECT O Lord, we beseech Thee, graciously hear our prayers, and unloosing the bonds of our sins, guard us from all adversity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end, Amen.

EPISTLE (I. Cor. XIII. 1-13.) Brethren, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not; dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

EXPLANATION In this epistle St. Paul speaks of the necessity, the excellence and the nature of true charity. He says that all natural and supernatural gifts, all good works, even martyrdom, cannot save us if we have not charity; because love alone can render our works pleasing to God. Without charity, therefore, though ever so many prayers be recited, fasts observed , and good deeds performed, nothing will be acceptable to God, or merit eternal life. Strive then, O Christian soul, to lead a pious life in love, and to remain always in the state of grace.

Can faith alone, as the so-called Reformers assert, render man just and save him?

Faith alone, however strong, though it could move mountains, without love, that is, without good works performed for love of God and our neighbor, can never justify or save us. For, when St. Paul says, that man is justified by faith without works, (Rom. III. 28.; XI: 6.; Eph. II. 8. 9.) he means to refer to those works which were performed by command of the law of Moses, and which, as they were external and without true charity, were of no avail; he did not refer to those works which are performed in a state of grace with a lively, love-inspired faith. Therefore the same Apostle writes to the Galatians: (Gal. V. 6.) Faith only availeth which worketh by charity; to Titus: (Tit. III. 8.) It is a faithful saying: and these things I will have thee affirm constantly: that they who believe in God, may be careful to excel in good works. These things are good and profitable unto men; and he exhorts the Colossians (Colos. I. 10.) to be fruitful in every good work. St. James confirms the same by saying: (James II. 17-24.) So faith if it have not works, is dead in itself; by works man is justified and not by faith only. That this is the true doctrine of Christ is evident from His own words, when He says: "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and shall be cast into the fire." (Matt. VII. 19.) At the day of judgment Christ will demand good works from all men, (Matt. XXV. 35.) and will not judge them only according to their faith, but by their good works, which true faith must always produce. (Apoc. XX. 12.) Would Christ and His apostles demand good works, if faith alone be sufficient? "The devil's also believe and tremble," (James II. 19.) they believe, but they are not saved, and their faith but increases their torments. Therefore, the assertion that faith without good works is sufficient for justification and salvation, is plainly against the doctrine of Christ and His Church, and must of necessity lead man to vice and misery, as shown by the history of the unhappy separation of the sixteenth century

Are good works available which are performed in the state of mortal sin ?

Good works performed while in a state of mortal sin avail nothing in regard to eternal life, writes St. Lawrence Justinian, but aid in moderating the punishment imposed for disobedience and the transgression of God's commandments. They bring temporal goods, such as honor, long life, health, earthly happiness, etc.; they prevent us from falling deeper into sin, and prepare the heart for the reception of grace; so the pious Person writes: "Do as much good as you can, even though in the state of mortal sin, that God may give light to your heart."

ASPIRATION O God of love, pour the spirit of true charity into my heart that, according to the spirit of St. Paul, I may endeavor to be always in a state of grace; that all my works may be pleasing to Thee, and meritorious for me.

GOSPEL (Luke XVIII. 31-43.) At that time, Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon; and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said. Now it came to pass, when he drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way-side, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Why did Christ so often foretell His passion to His disciples?

Because He wanted to show how great was His desire to suffer for us, for we speak often of that which we crave; and because He wished His disciples when they should see Him treated as a criminal and martyred, not to think evil of Him, or imagine themselves deceived, but remember that He had foretold all minutely that all happened of His own will.

Did not the disciples  understand anything of what He predicted in regard to His future sufferings?

They may, certainly, have well understood He was to suffer, for which reason Peter tried to dissuade Him from it; (Matt. XVI. 22.) but they did not comprehend why or for what He would suffer, or how He would rise again. All this the Holy Ghost gave them to understand, after it had come to pass. (John XIV. 26.) The light of the Holy Ghost is of so much value, that without it even the clearest doctrines of faith are not understood.

Why does Christ so often call Himself the Son of Man?

He wished to show, in the Jewish way of speaking, He was also man, a descendant of Adam, and that we should be humble, and not seek or desire high titles.

Why did the blind man call Christ the Son of David?

Because, like all the Jews, he believed that the Messiah, according to humanity, would be of the house of David, as was promised. (Ps. CXXXI. 11.)

Why did Christ ask the blind man: What wilt thou that I do to thee?

This He asked, not because He was unaware of the blind man's wish, but to enable him the better to prove his faith and hope that through Christ he would receive his sight; and to teach us how willing He is to help us, and how it pleases Him if we confidingly place our wants before Him. We should learn from this blind man, who would not be restrained by the passing crowd in his ardent and reiterated request, not to pay attention, in the work we have commenced, to human respect, or human judgment, but to persevere, and not allow ourselves to be led astray by the world's mockery or contempt. We should also learn to be grateful to God, and faithfully cling to Him, if He has once opened the eyes of our mind, and healed our spiritual blindness, which is far more deplorable than physical blindness, for nothing can be more miserable than not to see and understand God, not to know what is necessary for our salvation, and what is pernicious.

Why is this gospel read on this Sunday?

The Church wishes to remind us of the painful passion and death of Jesus, and to move us by the contemplation of those mysteries to avoid and despise the wicked, heathenish amusements of carnival, sinful pleasures which she has always condemned, because they come from dark paganism, and, to avert the people from them, commands that during the three days of carnival the Blessed Sacrament shall be exposed for public adoration, sermons given, and the faithful exhorted to have recourse at this time to the Sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, with the reception of which Pope Clement XIII. (Breve, 23. June 1765) connected a plenary indulgence. A true Catholic will conform to the desire of his holy Church, considering the words which St. Augustine spoke, at this time, to the faithful, "The heathens (as also the wordly people of our days) shout songs of love and merriment, but you should delight in the preaching of the word of God; they rush to the dramatic plays, but you should hasten to Church; they are intoxicated, but you should fast and be sober."

PRAYER O most benign Jesus! who didst so desire to suffer for us, grant, that we may willingly suffer for love of Thee; that we may hate and flee from the detestable pleasures of the world and the flesh, and practice penance and mortification, that by so doing we may merit to be released from our spiritual blindness to love Thee more and more ardently, and finally possess Thee forever.

INSTRUCTION ON LENT

Who instituted Lent?

According to the fathers of the Church, Justin and Irenaeus, the fast before Easter was instituted and sanctified by Christ Himself; according to the saints Leo and Jerome, the holy apostles ordained it given by Jesus.

Why has the Church instituted this fast forty days before Easter?

To imitate Christ who fasted forty days; to participate in His merits and sufferings; to subject our flesh by voluntary mortification to the spirit, and to mortify our evil desires as did St. Paul; (Col. I. 24.) to enable us to lead a pure life, and thus prepare for the holy festival of Easter, and the reception of the divine Lamb, Jesus: and, finally, to render God satisfaction for our sins, and do penance, as Pope Gregory says, for the sins of one whole year by one short fast, lasting only the tenth part of a year.

Was the fast of Lent observed in early times as in the present?

Yes, but more strictly; for the people of the early ages not only abstained from meat, but also from all that which is connected with it, such as eggs, butter, cheese, etc., even from wine and fish, although this was not the general command of the Church; they fasted all day, and only ate in the evening after vespers, in remembrance of which, vespers are now said before dinner-time, because the Church, as a kind mother, now permits the supper to be changed into a dinner, and also allows something to be taken in the evening, that the body may not be too much weakened, and become unfit for labor.

How much does this ancient custom put to shame the Christians of to-day who think the fast in our times too severe! "But," asks St. Ambrose, "what sort of Christians are they? Christ, who never sinned fasted for our sins, and we will not fast for our own great and numerous offences?"

How should the holy season of Lent be spent?

As according to the teaching of St. Leo, the main thing in fasting is not that the body be deprived of food, but that the mind at the same time be withdrawn from wickedness, we should endeavor during Lent, not only to be temperate in eating and drinking, but especially to lead a modest life, sanctifying the days by persevering prayer and devoutly attending church.

PRAYER AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT

Almighty God! I unite myself at the beginning of this holy season of penance with the Church militant, endeavoring to make these days of real sorrow for my sins and crucifixion of the sensual man. O Lord Jesus! in union with Thy fasting and passion, I offer Thee my fasting in obedience to the Church, for Thy honor, and in thanksgiving for the many favors I have received, in satisfaction for my sins and the sins of others, and that I may receive the grace to avoid such and such a sin, N. N. and to practice such and such a virtue, N. N.

International Public Notice: Belief in Money

 By Anna Von Reitz

Belief in money (or credit) is precisely the same animal as religious belief, only more so, because belief in money is completely pre-conditioned and left unexamined during an average person's lifespan. 

This is an international problem and it has persisted for thousands of years with evil consequences throughout the lifetime of this odd religious cult, which we find rooted in Babylon as a form of idolatry, at least 8,000 years ago. 

While we might endlessly question and debate the Bible, the Koran, or the Vedas and spend entire lifetimes passionately disagreeing about this or that interpretation of scripture, detailing why we believe this and not that ---- belief in money remains totally subconscious for the vast majority of the world's population.  

This belief is never thought of, much less discussed, critiqued, or overturned.  

Take notice that this particular belief is a dire problem that has led directly and indirectly to the death and mutilation and crippling of millions of innocent people, to peonage and enslavement, the pollution of our planet, and perpetual war profiteering.  This unseen "religion" has undermined all other governments and religions.  

People are so indoctrinated and have undergone such rigorous behavioral programming and conditioning to accept money and to believe in money, that nobody even glances sideways at their underlying belief in money, much less do we consciously analyze the details or the basis for the belief.  

It's hard to evaluate a belief if you don't know you have one, but, yes, everyone on this planet, from the most remote village in the rainforest to an airfield tarmac in Japan to the wheat fields of South Dakota to Burma and back again, everyone has been deeply and unconsciously indoctrinated to believe in money. 

Why?  Because a deeply ingrained subconscious and unexamined belief becomes akin to instinct and when people can no longer perceive that such a belief exists, much less question it, they become slaves to it.  

Commerce, abuse, and enslavement go hand-in-hand, so much so, that one does not appear to exist without the others.  The belief in money renders people vulnerable to coercion, control, abuse, and enslavement every time that money is introduced and left in the control of a few people, who are, unavoidably, the modern practitioners of this ancient and unexamined and idolatrous religion. 

Whatever money you have in your pockets, take it out and really look at it.  

In the case of the Federal Reserve Note you will find what the Bible calls a "graven image" completely covered in occult symbolism, from the little owl hidden in the border filigree of the one dollar bill to the pyramid (scheme) icon and the all-seeing eye and the portraits of dead people.  Other currencies may not be so blatant but they have their telltale signs of occult practice and beliefs, too. 

Money is an 8,000 year-old Substitution Scheme, and it may go back a lot longer than that. 

It started out with substituting a little gold coin for a bushel of wheat of equal value. 

Seemed fair enough at the time. 

It has ended up with pieces of paper, silver delivery contracts, being substituted for billions of ounces of physical silver. 

It has ended up with generations of people all over the world being ripped off and enslaved.  

Maybe that's why God said, "Make no graven images". 

The fundamental problem is not the pieces of paper or the coins; the problem is the belief in money itself.  It's the religion of Mammon, unseen and unknown, corrosively undermining all other religions, all other governments. 

Once you start substituting one thing for another, the entire world and everything in it, including the lives and bodies of living people, become "negotiable".  

We are misled into the logical error of thinking that one thing can be substituted for another---- when, objectively, it is already known that this isn't possible. 

We just learned, again, that silver delivery contracts are NOT equivalent to ounces of silver metal.  

In the same way, other pieces of paper called EUROS and Federal Reserve Notes and French Francs and German Deutsche Marks, are not equivalent to dried apricots, gallons of milk or steaks or dog food.  

The illusion that paper of any kind is equivalent to a physical asset, is the greatest scam in history, and even the proposition that one physical asset can be equal to another, is deeply questionable. 

Can strawberries be made equivalent to beef steak?  Is a pound of cheese equivalent to a hacksaw blade?  Or a silver coin? 

As a matter of sober consideration, no.  None of these exchanges are naturally equivalent. 

Not only that, if you are allergic to strawberries they have no value at all; if you cannot eat beef steak because your religion forbids it, the same devaluation occurs. When you cross the barrier of kinds, equivalencing a dairy food to a metal tool or coin is even more tenuous.  

If we step back far enough, we can see that we are dealing with the remnants of the infancy of mankind, an intellectual artifact of a time when fact and fantasy could blend and we could play games of "Pretend" and earnestly believe in them.  

The existence and use of money in modern times is a child's game gone horribly awry, a reminder of how many times we have struggled over this same lesson.

We like to think that prices are determined by an impersonal thing called "the market" with the judgements of value reflected by the prices people will willingly pay or what they will trade for something in a free market, but for over a hundred years nothing approaching a free market has existed.  

Central banks have had licenses to rig the prices and supplies of everything from shoelaces to cannonballs and Federal Reserve Notes for over a hundred years.  The unerring and unbiased judgement of the free market has been replaced by the judgement of bureaucrats, their masters, and their cronies.

Now nobody knows what anything is worth in an open market, and the perpetrators of this system certainly don't want to open the gates and find out.  

If we didn't believe in money, there would be no game, no scorecard,  no need to earn everything twice -- once when we produce the commodity or the service, and again when we earn the money to pay for it.  

Even if we, during the transition back to adulthood and sanity, have to use a system of asset-backed money to limp trade along while we retrain our brains, we cannot afford to forget the final goal, which is to stop believing in the Phantom Middleman, stop paying foreign idol-makers to supply money to us--- like so many addicts standing in line for our government dispensary fix. 

We have to give up our belief in money and stop being seduced by this ancient unseen religion, for once we see it for what it is, we know it is an ugly, even ridiculous con game.  We know it's arbitrary. We know it isn't real. And we know it's rigged against humanity.  

The creative challenge for the whole world is simply this: how do we do away with money and belief in money, before it does away with us?  And our world? 

Sitting in a corner with our hands clapped over our ears isn't going to fix this logic-interrupt loop.   

Simply realizing that we've suffered a form of behavioral modification and brain-washing to induce a false belief -- a true mass delusion -- doesn't immediately help.  We become aware that we are being ripped off, but as a world economy, remain just as stymied and enslaved, temporarily unable to function without agreed-upon symbols of value to trade. 

Central Bank Digital Currencies were never any answer; that was simply handing more coercive control over to the culprits and hoping for a good outcome. 

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XLP --- more fantasy based on more abstraction and control of a brand name.  

There isn't enough gold or silver in the world to meet the transactional needs of 8 billion people, but that's no reason to kill them all. 

Issuing debt notes "backed by gold" is the very definition of insane. 

And we still need a way to turn cabbages into cell phones.

The people of this Earth are owed a vast amount of prepaid credit, hundreds of times more than any debt that any portion of the population owed. 

That prepaid credit was paid in actual goods and services.  And it's owed. 

Gold and silver and land and other physical assets, and intellectual assets, such as our Given Names which were seized upon and copyrighted as property of the British Crown Corporation without our knowledge or consent, all belong to the living people of this planet. 

We say it's time for us to erase all debts, public and private.  We say it is time for all the estates of mankind to be returned unharmed and for each man and woman to have their little kingdom safe and secure from the debts and obligations of corporations. 

It's time for families and communities and states and countries and regions to have the peace that is naturally theirs and the enjoyment of the abundance that is naturally theirs, too.  

Each and every one of us, wherever we may be upon the Earth.  

These resources of prepaid credit distributed worldwide combined with the return of our gold and silver currencies, is more than enough to meet the transactional needs of everyone in every country, and can be used to buoy us all over in one piece.  

It's enough to buy mankind the time needed to outgrow the belief in money and outgrow the belief in scarcity, which to be fair, were both beliefs that were planted in our minds and induced by constructed circumstances calculated to cause us suffering. 

These contrived false beliefs, like later narratives, have been used to manipulate us to our detriment.

We say that we are done with all that.  The days when we could be misled and abused like little children are gone, and the days when those who did these crimes are brought to justice are here and now. 

Notice to Principals is Notice to Agents; Notice to Agents is Notice to Principals. 

Issued by: 

Anna Maria Riezinger -- Fiduciary

The United States of America

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

February 12th 2026

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Granna Bytes: Clarity About California Team

 By Anna Von Reitz

When I "fired" the new Co-Coordinators for continuing to dredge up past issues, that was not a condemnation of them as people. It was a recognition that, as a group, the past still had a hold and it was being dragged into the present and the future.

I meant no disrespect to any individual.  It's not like they committed any crime. I left the door open to come forward and say, "I didn't mean it that way." or "I didn't make those accusations." or ---whatever was true. Maybe the truth was simply, "I wasn't thinking of it in terms of the past. I was trying to solve a current problem." 

At least two of those who were impacted by this decision thought about it and did exactly that --- came forward and explained what they were grappling with and what they were trying to do.  And then I could understand and sympathize.  

Then I could suggest paths forward, open doors, and smooth away the ruffled feathers, show them what I was dealing with, and what I needed from them.  

David Hara simply explained his life situation and desire to concentrate on recording secretary duties.  He wasn't removed from being a Coordinator, if he had desired to continue.  

Laura Jordan came forward and explained her intentions and what she was trying to do, and we discussed it all.  The group had a worthy goal.  It was the way they approached it that went sideways.

And that is often the way things go. Just a little fine-tuning, a little adjustment in the way things are thought of or presented, can make all the difference in the world.  Laura is welcome to come back any time she wants to. 

Communication broke down because the Co-Coordinator Team was trying to do it all themselves with no help, trying to relieve my burdens by not asking questions or discussing the problems they were encountering. 

As it turns out, they were struggling over some terrain that the Federation had already cleared, not knowing the whole story because they didn't talk to me or other Federation Officers who could have and would have helped.  

There's a fine line between "not bothering us" and sensing when you don't really know the answer, and maybe need to talk to us. 

Nobody has done this for 160 years. 

Even the Federation -- people who have researched and dug and asked questions for decades --- often get stumped and have to dig some more.  

There's no shame in asking questions.  That's why there's a Summoning Authority -- to stand behind and assist the State Assemblies as they assemble, to guide them in the process, to encourage them to take right action on their own behalf, in accord with the customs and traditions of the American people and our Lawful Government. 

The former Co-Coordinators are not in any disgrace, not kicked out. The door is still open and the path is free to walk.  

The lesson is that there are right ways and wrong ways to do everything, and yes, it's appropriate to ask.  I regularly ask questions ---which is how I wound up in this situation, so be forewarned. 

This is also why I don't mind taking the time to answer questions for the Assemblies.  Even if I don't know the answer, I have access to the deep knowledge of other researchers.  

This is why Coordinators are in the field -- to act as liaisons between those who are building their State Assemblies and the Federation Think Tanks that have or can get answers the Assemblies need as they build their internal structures and come to grips with their duties and rights as the foundational components of the American Government. 

If your Coordinator isn't regularly in contact with the Federation and asking questions and returning with answers, they should be. That's their job.  There are those who persist in the error of thinking of the Federation in the same way that they think of the Federal Government.  It's important that nobody continues with that mistake. 

The Federation is not any part of the Federal Government.  

The Federation pre-dates the Federal Government and stands above the Federal Government --- in Law, in Truth, in Fact. 

And even if the present British-led imposters try to obscure this, it remains the truth. 

Our Federation Officers are Americans owing no loyalty to Britain. They are American State Nationals like everyone else. They belong to the Assembly in their home State where they live like everyone else. 

Our Federation Officers have every right, every duty, every responsibility of any other American and can serve in any capacity that any other ASN can serve -- with one (1) exception.  They can't serve on their State's International Business Assembly. 

Other than that, we are rank and filers like everyone else.  

Granna  

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International Public Notice: Gaia is Mars

 By Anna Von Reitz

We live on a landscape left behind by cosmic warfare, the "War in the Heavens", and its aftermath.  That aftermath includes the destruction of Mars as a life-supporting planet, the tilting of Earth on its lop-sided axis, the sudden disappearance of islands and parts of continents, ice ages, and more.  

When people talk about "Gaia" and about "restoring Gaia" many people assume that we are talking about Earth, but no, we are talking about the restoration of Mars. 

Gaia is the name of Mars. 

Terra, sometimes spelled as "Tara" is the name of the Earth. 

In a world that is already terribly confused, we don't need to add to the chaos.  

Restoration of Gaia has become possible as a result of advances in AI, energy collection, and robotics. For some on this planet, including Elon Musk, this has been a cherished dream because of direct ties to Mars.  For others, it has been seen as a open door to an alternative environment for an over-crowded Earth. 

What happened to Mars?  It's atmosphere was blown away by the solar wind as vast plasma fields converged upon it --- and what was once a beautiful planet became the dry husk seen today. 

The Earth needs recalibration, which is a different kind of restoration.  Earth's restoration involves unblocking certain "energy dams" called "seals" that have been artificially inserted and used to manipulate the natural flow of energy on the planet, cleaning up vast pollution of the biosphere, and other adjustments.  

Many are aware of this work and took part in clearing two of these seals, which restored the natural flow of energy to Africa.  

Though most Africans will never know the goodwill that prompted this effort, you can see the effects in the advancement of the African Union and their ability to recognize and throw off the chains of the Corporate Colonialists.  

There were always those who saw the chains but few who tried to do anything about it.  Now that the energy is restored, Africa will easily rise above the Colonialist threats and the local corruption that have bound generations of Africans to a form of commercial enslavement. 

One day soon, we will wake up to the happy realization that Colonialism has finally ended, not only in Africa, but throughout the world. 

Issued by: 

Anna Maria Riezinger -- Fiduciary 

The United States of America

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

February 11th 2025

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Granna Bytes: About Homelessness

 By Anna Von Reitz

I have the deepest empathy for all those who are struggling over housing issues.  This shameful state of affairs is totally unnecessary and is the result of gross breach of trust and misadministration .  We are moving as quickly as possible to correct it by ousting the District Courts and by forcing them to review their decisions and exonerate those taken against Americans.  Believe me, I am putting the hammer down on the rats so hard that they can barely squeak.  Their abuse of the court system, their failure to provide remedy (and therefore the illegality of the Federal Reserve Note), and their trespass on our States of the Union is being rammed down their throats on a daily basis.  

Their breach of trust and service contracts is the topic that won't go away, and the Due Process that was served on them for seven (7) years won't go away, either. 

Our approach at the Federation level is to ignore the brush fires in favor of catching the arsonists ----and putting them in jail or deporting them outside our borders.  This solves the basic problem at the source, and will then allow us to attend to the individual situations. 

At the present time, using the data and statistics available, the homeless population is largely composed of the elderly, young families, and "unemployables" who are disabled in some way.  The split is uneven and varies from state to state, but remains consistent overall.  

What can we do for the homeless right now?  We can open our hearts and really look at them and really see them.  That's the hard part.  Look into their faces, stop to talk, try to figure out who they are and where they rightly belong.  Then do what we can to get them there.  

Jim and I once converted an old log outbuilding on our property into a make-shift home for homeless men.  Jim went out on the streets and talked to them, and those he deemed safe, he brought home. They had to cut their own wood, shovel their own snow, keep their own outhouse clean, do their own laundry, haul their own water, and cook their own food.  I typed up their resumes if they had skills for those kinds of jobs, and they were all welcome to pursue any day work they could find.  I scouted the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores for clothes for them and furniture for their needs. There was no electricity in their shelter, but they had books and board games and hobby supplies.  Our 16" x 40" shed had an average of three men, sometimes up to five or six all living peaceably together, surviving the winter.  We gave them basic food -- ham hocks, onions, root vegetables, beans, rice, flour, coffee, lard.... the basics of life, a bed to sleep on, chairs to sit on.  Come winter, they had a "freezer" in the form of an insulated fish locker.  

The hardest cases were men too old to work hard, who had no family.  They made friends and tried their best to help and guide the younger men.  

All that came to an end in 1996 when the Miller's Reach Fire devastated our whole community and burned down our house and the shelter building, both.  

Our success at running a make-shift, unofficial shelter for homeless men depended on Jim's unerring ability to discern those who could fit into the social setting we had to offer. 

In case there was any doubt, we are most cruel to homeless men in this society; women can usually find somewhere to stay and get preference, especially if they have children. I guess men are supposed to freeze at lower temperatures than women.  Whatever reason it is, men take the worst of the homeless blight. 

"Taking in strays" as our disdainful neighbor called it, isn't for everyone.  Jim was still a mighty man in middle age so there were no bunkhouse fights or problems of that kind, but it was most likely because Jim was formidable in his own quiet way, and because he knew men.  He could sort the addictions and the hard luck stories and discern the truth.  He knew when someone would fit into our place and who wouldn't. 

I think about all those men "just passing through" our lives, some for a week, some for a month, some for a winter.  I know what happened, ultimately, to a few of them -- but most just went on down the road.  The one thing they had in common is that they had shelter from the cold and a lifeline through the winter.  

We often wondered how all the churches in the area stood there all warm and bright, and largely empty all the time, and never appeared to think that the homeless clustered helplessly nearby, freezing and starving, might be their brothers, or even their Lord -- that they might be honor-bound to do something practical to help.  To at least try.  The attitude of the snooty neighbors just echoed the institutional failures.  Good people, they believed, don't end up on the street.  

Our experience contradicts that self-satisfied excuse.  Good people wind up on the street every single hour of every single day, and it's not their fault that they do.  

An effective effort begins with having the courage and taking the time simply to talk to the homeless as people.  Find out who they are.  And then having the street smarts to evaluate what they tell you.  Are they mentally ill? Veterans suffering from untreated PTSD? Workmen who hit a stretch of bad luck?  Abused wives with nowhere to flee?  Orphaned or abandoned teenagers chucked out of State programs at the age of 18?  Chronic alcoholics?  Drug addicts?  Criminals working a beat?  Immigrants who don't know the language or culture?  

Someone has to ask the questions.  Who are they?  How did they get into this situation?  What do they need, right now, today, and what do they need to make their way forward? 

Somehow, despite over two billion Christians, Jews, and Muslims who have all been taught better,  the homeless and the orphans continue to suffer and die.  

Nobody is honest. Nobody admits that the condition of the homeless scares the wealthy and the complacent.   Yes, it frightens them.  They recoil and glance swiftly away.  Or keep their head turned avoiding eye contact altogether.  They don't want to ask the questions.  They don't want to know the answers.  They just want to get away and keep endlessly working, so that they don't end up the same way.  

Sometimes, in a misguided attempt to help, people wind up creating something worse.  Here's an example of it -- the so-called "orphan trains" that saved children from one bad situation, just to land them in something arguably worse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0eYVPgLVdg&list=PLNPtrE3klhpBBw0uuszXzrQb-PVx6QBHv

If you can take a moment to go beyond being "entertained" and listen to a woman's experience of being an orphan at the mercy of the Childrens' Aid Society, it may change your life. It may bring you into a whole new realization of the ways that the homeless have been exploited, and how commercialism, abuse, and enslavement go hand in hand, and always have. 

But before you run off to do your homework and watch this video, I want to say something crucial.  

The woman who shared her life story in this video was wrong about something.  She thought that she "lost" something, in her case, the ability to connect and to feel, and she believed that she couldn't get it back.  She believed that she was just "broken" and could never be mended. 

That belief became the truth for her.  It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.   Others defined her as a thing, a worker, a tool, a slave.   That was the only definition she knew.  The only way she was taught to react.  She most likely lived out her life never realizing that she could redefine herself, could be her own parent, could live for some other purpose than work, work, work. Most likely, even her own children, never stopped and asked the questions.  Never took the mending or the potato peeler out of her hands.  Never sat her down and played a song for her and certainly, never taught her to dance. 

Everyday, I have to deal with the brokenness of the world,  with broken children, and broken adults.  They come to me in droves.  They cry on my shoulder.  They tell me things that they can barely admit to themselves on a dark day in the bathroom, alone.  And it always comes as such relief to them, to simply tell the truth, whatever the truth is.  To have someone listen. 

To have someone be truly present for them.  

No matter how you cut it, it all begins and ends with communication.  The answers, and the healing, begin with communication. And courage. Always, solutions take courage. 

Sometimes the most fierce battles are the ones you have within yourself, when you are tired, when you are fed up, when you feel like you've got nothing left to give, when the weight of your own problems seems to be just about more than enough and your pocketbook is slim.  

It happens when you walk by that Salvation Army volunteer, because you are embarrassed by poverty and faith.  It happens when you turn aside from the young beggar in the parking lot, asking for gas money when he doesn't have a car.  It happens when you think that you don't have anything in common with a black man in his forties or a Muslim mother from Sudan. 

One day, the moment comes, when all the riches in the world mean less than nothing at all.  All the pride falls away.  You are left looking back at your life, and what you did, or failed to do with it.  You suddenly see yourself as your own Observer, realizing what a gift and resource you were given, and also, realizing how you wasted it, spent it chasing things that didn't matter, and failed to do what you were called to do, and what you could have done. 

Don't let that moment find you, when you have nothing left to say.  

Granna

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