Saint Michael, Defend the Ukrainian People!

Saint Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of Kyiv, Ukraine. This is a picture of his statue in Maidan Plaza. On his feast day, all those who love Ukraine should ask him to intercede with God to bring an end to the daily, brutal, relentless bombing by Russian drones and ballistic missiles of Kyiv and many other cities in Ukraine. 

Putinist Russia continues its four-and-a-half year barbaric assault on Ukraine in its effort to conquer Ukrainian territory and break the spirits and the bodies of the Ukrainian people. The terror-bombing of Kyiv has reached unprecedented levels, and no one in the city feels safe. No one knows where the next bomb will fall, resulting in immense physical and psychological suffering for the afflicted civilian population.

Putin’s war machine continues to inflict various ruthless crimes on people throughout the country who have been run over by his uncompromising “special military operation.” Most recently, Russian forces are executing a total blockade on the remaining 2000 residents in the town of Oleshky in Kherson. Denied all access to necessary resources, these people have begun to eat the grass for lack of food. This is “hunger-murder” in progress, once again, in the 21st century. Murder by starvation. Ukrainians have been subjected to this crime before. It remains an abominable crime against innocent human beings.

Saint Michael, pray for an end to this horrific invasion, for the conversion of those who perpetrate it, and for the turning of all hearts to the love of God, and toward peace, justice, healing, and constructive dialogue that respects internationally recognized boundaries and international law. Pray for the peoples of the world to recognize and appreciate one another, and to live as brothers and sisters. Pray for the afflicted Ukrainian people.

Here is the recent post from the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk:

Avril Lavigne, Where Are You?

Now turning to that other September 27th birthday, I suppose I should join the global fandom that was everywhere on my social media feeds yesterday wishing a Happy Birthday to the legendary singer-songwriter and rock star Avril Lavigne. Indeed, Happy Birthday Avril!

But I can’t help asking the question that I’m surprised no one else seems to be asking, and that is “Where are you, Avril?” It’s hard to ignore the fact that nothing has been seen or heard from her since November 2025. All of her social media accounts are still up, frozen with last year’s posts. Maybe she’s taking a break (?) — which would make me happy. Avril turned 42 yesterday, and it wouldn’t hurt her to take some time to reflect and … y’know … GROW UP a bit. And also continue to branch out artistically. Avril has shown that she has the chops to take her music in new directions, and she seems to want that creative freedom. If that accounts for her recent absence, then that’s great. But somehow it doesn’t seem that way. It’s a bit odd, in light of her recent career trajectory which seemed “full-speed-ahead” until it froze suddenly last Fall.

Oh, the celebrity life! The whole experience seems so dysfunctional … and yet I also watch the spectacle of “public people,” and have a sense of a “bond” with them that is not entirely illusory. They share themselves through their talents in our implosive “global village,” and their work enters into the experiences and memories of ordinary people. Some of them are just crazy-good at what they do, and audiovisual media bring them into our ordinary perception more and more, sometimes to our profound edification but usually with the ambivalence and confusion of the dominant secularized milieu and its increasingly shrinking and shallow sense of the dignity of the human person. 

As someone from the first generation that never knew a world without television, I know only too well this milieu and the discernment and care required to appreciate the artifices that arise within it. There is much to appreciate, much that is flawed but at least in certain respects aims for genuine goodness and creativity. But it can come at a high price, an “inhuman,” excessive price.

It makes me weep to see the real lives of celebrities horribly, suddenly, and publicly fall apart. I’m trying to understand this whole thing better, and bring it (and them) to the Lord in prayer. As I have mentioned before, I “spiritually adopt” some of these people and pray for them particularly and frequently.

With Avril, I have special reasons to be concerned, and to pray for her… a lot. And as a chronic worrier, I can’t help wondering, “What the heck is going on?”

Since her re-emergence onto the music scene in 2018 after battling Lyme Disease into remission, Avril had been quite visible releasing new music, doing collaborations, appearing at award ceremonies, popping in to the big Fashion Weeks in Paris, Milan, or New York, and posting on Instagram (or TikTok) consistently. Since 2022, she had toured over large parts of the world. After promoting her seventh album, she didn’t seem to want to slow down. In 2024, she released a “Greatest Hits” album, which only Avril Lavigne could get away with in the Age of Spotify (when we can all make our own “greatest hits playlists” for ourselves). She toured “Greatest Hits 2024” and “Greatest Hits 2025” in North America and Europe, causing a crowd-control crisis at the Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., selling out venues everywhere including Madison Square Garden, and having lots of success. Latin America and Asia were totally expecting a “Greatest Hits 2026.” But sometimes I looked at those Instagram concert videoclips and thought to myself, “Hmmm…, she looks… tired.” 

Of course, knowing Lyme Disease the way I do, I was a bit concerned. I hoped and prayed that she was taking care of herself. “Creative personalities” often don’t know how to turn down the intensity. The impulse to “overwork” comes with the experience of being an artist, along with lots of other problems of psychological balance. And there may be personal sources of stress we know nothing about.

Has Avril had a Lyme flare-up? Look, it does happen. Often we can “push” through it, if necessary. We develop a “bag of tricks” to keep going. “Taking a break” can be a very helpful trick. But for Avril, it’s been so long and so silent. No social media greeting for last Christmas, New Year’s, Valentines Day, Easter, Canada Day? She’s been pretty consistent on those things in the past. No public appearances anywhere, not even the Juno awards. No weird or goofy posts at all? Avril is a “ham,” so something’s not making sense here. 

We know she’s still alive. Apparently, she attended Taylor Swift’s big private wedding. Taylor Swift, along with basically every other woman in the past 20+ years of popular music, will cite Avril as one of her great inspirations. Also, I recently saw a picture going around that placed her at another recent celebrity party. Not sure it was even real.

But Avril has historically made a big deal about her birthday. Always shares pictures, gushes with gratitude to all the fans who post greetings, and tries out some new pose. Avril still has that unusual charisma that lets her get away with things that would seem ridiculous for other people. As of this belated date, however, there has been nothing from her on her 42nd birthday.

It’s unusual. I guess there are lots of possible explanations, including personal circumstances that are none of our business. I’m not interested in gossip. I just hope she’s okay.

The “Littlest Janaro” Turns ONE!

How lovely that Katie’s First Birthday fell on a Sunday. There was a big family turnout at our son’s house, with brunch and a cake. There were presents too, which Katie opened “with the help” of her older sisters. Her role was accomplished (more-or-less) by others, but as a baby she’s pretty used to that.

As everybody knows, first birthday parties don’t register much in the one-year-old mind. There are lots of familiar people around: sisters, parents, aunts and uncles, and both sets of grandparents. The party is really more for them. They take pictures and give lots of attention to the birthday girl, but they do that all the time anyway. Then, for a good stretch of the afternoon, the birthday girls naps. She sleeps through part of her own party.

I didn’t take cake-pictures or present-pictures; just a few double-selfies. She is growing so much. She crawls like a champion, stands often, and has begun to take steps. Katie is very curious, and we are going to have to keep an especially close eye on the lower shelves when she’s at our house (which, like nearly all the shelves in our house, are full of books). She is very cheerful (except when she’s fussing or crying) and always has a big smile for Papa. She still likes to pull the beard, and has recently discovered the joy of knocking down towers of blocks whenever Papa tries to build them.

We already have this special “history” with these kids. It is gratuitous, and it continues to grow. It is yet another sign of the gratuity of reality itself. The older I get, the more I sense that I’m surrounded everywhere by gifts that are great and radically original beyond anything I could ever make myself. They refresh and in a way clarify the promises of my own youth: a new generation is growing within history as I sense myself “growing closer” to the ultimate fulfillment for which I hope. This evokes a gratitude, a sense of peace, and a quieter determination to live as well as possible the days ahead, with all my personal limitations. The winds that have whipped up storms in my brain all my life are perhaps growing calmer and steadier. It helped too that my brother was there (“Uncle Walter”) after finishing the first round of his current therapy. He looked a little bit “better,” I thought, although I know that he also gets a “boost” from his grand-nieces.

The birthday presents were fun, but — aside from clothes — they drew more enthusiasm from Maria and Anna, who immediately started playing with the toys. Little kids are not put off by toys that are designed for a “younger age group.” They aren’t ashamed to play with stuff designed for infant-toddlers, and in fact Anna — not quite three years old — is still a toddler herself. Her birthday is coming up in November.

Under the Gaze of Jesus

“It is by accepting to live truthfully under the gaze of Jesus that we can be authentic and look honestly at our lives. They are fragile, vulnerable and destined to pass through death; yet they are also wonderful and miraculous, capable of being renewed through our relationships and of opening themselves to true love” (Pope Leo XIV).

King Papa!

There’s no need to add much in the way of explanation to this picture. When the grandchildren are around, Nana and Papa have a rollicking good time. Maria is now five years old and she is very bright. She’s also creative, imaginative, funny, and sometimes even goofy. And so she has crowned me “King Papa” with the cloth crown they all play with, which doesn’t fit me very well. I’m always ready to be silly with the grandkids, although Maria is also in the early stages of being capable of more reflective conversations too. I’m looking forward to those days in the future (God willing). In any case, it is good to be part of their growing-up. When they go home, of course, we’re pretty tired. It’s a “happy” tired. I’m happy to be “King Papa”!

...and Don’t Worry!

Happy Feast of Saint (Padre) Pio.

I’ll never win any graphics awards, but I decided anyway to work up something “visual” for this day. These brief words are full of significance, especially for someone who is prone to discouragement and who worries too much.

It is a grace to remember that Jesus is here, whatever difficulties the moment may bring; and to remember that His merciful love is infinitely greater than all my problems and perplexities and forgetfulness and failures; and to remember that I belong to Him, that He embraces me in my poor crazy life.

Almost Autumn... Already?

A few images of late September, as the autumn months approach. 

When I Sit and When I Stand….

“O Lord, you have probed me and you know me;

    you know when I sit and when I stand;

    you understand my thoughts from afar.

My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,

    with all my ways you are familiar.”

~Psalm 139:1-3

These verses speak of the God who creates the whole universe, who transcends all things, and who is “nearer to me than I am to myself.” The Infinite. The Mystery. The “still, small voice” that whispers in the depths of every human soul the ineffable promise that sustains our seeking and awakens our conscience. The only One who corresponds to the “forever” that moves us to even begin to desire anything.

For most of history, for the vast majority of the human race, the Mystery seems obscured beyond all thought and all manner of searching. Still, everyone searches….

When the followers of Confucius asked him about what happens when we die, he responded with a brilliant and provocative question: “How can we understand death when we don’t understand life?” Or, in Classical Chinese: 焉知死 (A.I. can find the text for me, and provide links to various attempts to explain it, but it can’t answer the question; it can’t even explain what Confucius really meant by asking it).

The Lord knows “when I sit and when I stand.” The Lord knows how much my “sitting” and “standing” are taken up with trying to learn the deep currents of a great and ancient civilization that remains grounded upon this question, and whose peoples cannot avoid this question no matter how hard they try.

The Lord knows every one of these persons, and loves each of them with an everlasting love. The Heart of Jesus Christ knows and loves each of them on the Cross. This I know by the gift of faith, and by the gratuitous and overflowing love of God. I certainly don’t deserve to know anything (and can barely remember what is given to me every day).

In these times, the love of Christ compels us to bear witness to Him, which entails also the task of listening, learning, and engaging in dialogue with all of humanity. Faith opens us up to every human person and to all of history, calling us to share in the inexhaustible mystery of the concreteness and the ardor of Christ’s love. The study of history and the dialogue between civilizations don’t yield “easy answers,” but they are sustained by great wonder and great hope.

“The Wood of the Cross”

September 14th: Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

So Many September Changes, Especially in 2026

The "change of seasons" is in the air. For me this time is still touched with melancholy, as school seasons begin to move forward (which is still a big change of routine for my wife and my colleagues and friends). The sense of being "alone" at this time — even if I don't think about it — seems to weigh down my bones. Teaching is at the heart of my vocation. I am moved to try to communicate the truth I am learning, and to “walk together” with others in the search for wisdom and understanding about reality as a whole, human history, and the circumstances that are unfolding before us today. I have always regarded this “professorial” task as the basic mode of my service to the “common good” of my community, my nation, and this world which more than ever requires us to recognize our shared humanity and engage global problems with collaboration and solidarity.

But I am long retired from classroom teaching (for health reasons), and I am finding it increasingly difficult to use the means of communication that remain accessible to me in my present circumstances. I have in recent years been given a measure of strength that allowed me to publish a book over a decade ago and write a monthly column in Magnificat for the last thirteen years. Now I find this relative strength diminishing more rapidly as I grow older and communications media — along with the society as a whole — become increasingly superficial, over-saturated, and chaotic.

With this month’s Magnificat article, I am — regrettably — bringing my long series of “Great Conversion Stories” to an end (I don’t know whether the magazine will continue with the same theme under another author, or introduce another series). I do intend to bring together in an accessible form the entire collection of these stories (over 300 pages). This will be “my next book,” and I hope to bring out longer reflections on some of the remarkable persons I have written about with such brevity in my column.

But that depends on how much my health permits me to continue researching and writing. I know that increasing limitations on “natural” human capabilities open up wider possibilities for “spiritual” action in solidarity with persons (and peoples) whose sufferings I continue to study in my East Asia Project. I still hope to communicate more on these important themes insofar as it is possible. I hope that I shall continue to learn and ask questions for many years yet. But Jesus knows the path along which He wants to draw me to Himself.

The “issues” I noted recently that were holding up my brother’s treatment (and, probably, other issues that we don’t know about) have led to an impasse on the possibility of him benefitting from a new cancer protocol. Therefore, he will begin a more “conventional” course of chemotherapy on September 14th. It’s a mild form of the treatment that doctors hope will slow down the growth of the cancer. This is all that can be hoped for, and we don’t know how long he will remain among us in this present life. This is hard for him and for everyone; we are being led along many new and unfamiliar roads. Everyone please keep praying for him, and for those around him. God’s will be done.

If statistics mean anything, the accessibility of this Blog has cratered since it got cut off from the old domain address. I guess I will have to rebuild an active “following” all over again. I don’t know how those things are done. I know the blog has been helpful to more than a few people through the years. I hope and pray we stay connected or re-connect. The current blog address is < johnjanaro[dot]blogspot[dot]com >.

September brings changes… it would be nice if the weather would change, but so far it remains hot and humid! But the change in weather will come.

Happy Birthday, Mother Mary!

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother Mary! The Mother of God our Savior and Redeemer was once herself a baby in the arms of her mother Saint Anne. This is the human reality of our faith in a particularly tender and beautiful realization. Mary, the woman who brings Jesus to us, is so lovable in her own history which is entirely shaped for Him. She is the first light after a long night of human misery and longing for the truth of life. She lives “already” the mystery of His grace, the mystery of our salvation that encompasses her whole history and, through her obedience, breaks into our history and changes it by changing us.

Dear Mother Mary, Refuge of Sinners, I am so grateful to you for everything!

To celebrate this feast day, Pope Leo XIV once again visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano (about an hour east of Rome), which is cared for by his own beloved Augustinian brothers. Here are a few excerpts from his homily (emphasis mine):

“I am joyfully here again, to celebrate with you the Vigil of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin and to entrust to the Child Mary whatever is still being born in this poor yet magnificent humanity: fragile as a sprout, but a sign of God's faithfulness. Yes, Mary is the dawn of a different day, of our world finally freed from evil….

“Dear brothers and sisters, we feel dizzy before this Mystery: it is impossible to get used to it! We celebrate the birth of a child called to become the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God who saves. And yet, she is born simply a child, like the daughters and granddaughters we hold in our arms. Today we have for her noble and lofty titles, of Lady and Queen, but God's way has been and remains simpler and more silent, yet no less powerful and transformative. It is the way of Jesus himself, ‘the firstborn among many brethren’ (Romans 8:29). Well, like Mary, we too are ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son’ (ibid.): by grace, certainly, but desiring and preferring his path — his choices, his journey — to other ways. In Jesus Christ, God has chosen the humblest historical conditions and the humblest of creatures to manifest the uniqueness of his Kingdom, in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service, and care for life.

“Today, in the Collect, turning to little Mary, we asked that ‘the celebration of her birth may increase our peace.’… We want to imagine peace — to broaden the boundaries of understanding and paint it in our souls — to recognize that it already exists, to welcome it and serve it. It is the gift of God, the breath of the Risen One, the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us allow peace to grow within us. It will sprout in the world. And the Mother of Good Counsel will accompany us in this mission.”

Malcolm Muggeridge Encounters “Something Beautiful for God”

In these September days — as we celebrate the holy life and incredibly profound vocation of Saint Teresa of Calcutta — it is worthwhile to recall the remarkable story of her good friend Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), a well-known British writer and radio and television journalist whose life was deeply involved with some of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century.

He was baptized Anglican as an infant, but his childhood was shaped by the optimistic socialism of his father. Malcolm grew up thinking that an earthly “utopia” might be built by social engineering, but this idea never satisfied entirely the vast and seemingly contradictory longings of his heart. From an early age, Jesus attracted him with the promise of Eternity. From Scripture, literature, and friendship with some devout Anglicans, he learned the ways of prayer, and would never entirely forget them. At the same time, his heart was pulled by pride, worldly ambitions, and selfish desires. His vivid consciousness of his own inner incoherence frustrated and afflicted him for many years.

As a young adult, Malcolm was an ardent admirer of the Bolshevik Revolution and the international Communist movement as it emerged in the 1920s. He became a journalist and, in 1931, a Moscow correspondent for a British newspaper. There, Malcolm’s socialist dream shattered against the hard reality of Stalin’s brutal reign of terror. Without authorization, he traveled to Ukraine and saw the horror and devastation of a politically engineered famine that killed millions of Ukrainians. He also came to a crowded Ukrainian church in Kyiv on a Sunday — crowded with hungry desperate people singing the Liturgy, begging for the mercy of a God who had suffered on the Cross. In this church, Malcolm began to realize that suffering (only made horribly worse by Communism, and in one way or another tragically unavoidable for all of us) didn’t have to be the ultimate frustration of human existence. Malcolm caught a glimpse of the God he had not entirely stopped seeking: the God who had come to dwell with us and to take our sufferings upon Himself. In that Ukrainian church, he sensed the closeness of Christ and His love to these suffering people who were beyond all earthly hopes.

Still, Malcolm wrestled for decades with his fickle, divided heart. He also became famous in postwar Britain as an editor and writer, television personality, and pioneering international documentary maker. This work would bring him to Calcutta, India, in 1966, to make a documentary about a Catholic nun who had founded a religious order dedicated to serving “the poorest of the poor.” In some ways, Malcolm Muggeridge “introduced” Mother Teresa to the affluent Western world through this landmark documentary, Something Beautiful for God.

He also came to know Mother Teresa as a concrete witness to Christ and a friend who cared about him. She amazed him as someone who was eminently practical, who lived “in the world,” but who did not depend on human powers or human success. Instead, she saw and loved Christ in everyone, especially the poorest people, the street-dwellers of Calcutta, the abandoned sick and dying, those she found who had no other hope. Malcolm recognized in Mother Teresa a sign of the love of God that alone could give meaning to the whole of human existence, the love that transforms even suffering and death. He knew that human projects and political powers were too small (and too tainted) to produce a joy that was eternal. But in Mother Teresa’s witness Malcolm saw living faith in the Incarnation, in the God who chose to humble Himself out of love.

Around this time, Malcolm publicly professed adherence for Christianity, and worked more openly with Christian themes in the remaining years of his life. He still felt intellectually alienated from the Catholic Church by some negative aspects of the Church’s historical profile and often flawed leaders. But through the encouragement and prayers of Mother Teresa and many others, he was slowly falling in love with the Church. This love finally prevailed, and he was received into the Catholic Church in 1982.

Mother Teresa's "Outstanding Charity"

Collect Prayer for the Memorial of Saint (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta, who died on September 5, 1997:

God, who called the virgin 

Saint Teresa

to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the Cross 

with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor, 

grant us, we beseech you, 

by her intercession, 

to minister to Christ in our suffering brothers and sisters.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Sunset in September 2026

I’m always doing sunsets with my “digital, photo-based art” because I always take my walks in late afternoon or early evening (so that’s when the original pictures get taken). I’ve had a rough summer, but I have not ceased to be the “three-legged adventurer,” although my walks have become a bit shorter with the heat and humidity. Anyway, in my part of the Shenandoah Valley, we’re up on a hill, facing West, looking at the Massanutten ridge (where I used to love to hike when I was younger, and where I probably picked up lots of ticks without caring, back in the late 1980s and 90s). 

But even from the valley here, this ridge dominates the edge of the horizon and provides us with beautiful sunsets all through the year. I don’t have to walk very far from my house to see them. I still take many photos of the sunset. Sometimes I try to (digitally) “sculpt” them into images that are little more “evocative.” My digital art is an ongoing “adventure” of its own, a long experiment in media I will probably never master, but I might be able to place a small part on the ever-expanding canvases of “the New Art,” searching for genuine human insight, creativity, and technique by using digital tools on photographs. I suppose the much promoted and much feared elements of “AI” can be useful (I’m not sure I know how to distinguish them from tools I’ve used for many years — everything these days, it seems, claims to be AI). 

Some of these tools I can recognize because they seem to “think they know better than me” about the effects they create. So I wrestle with trying to “correct them” to give me what I want in the picture. My experience is AI tools (like, for example, “magic erasor”) is that they create a whole bunch of new problems for an artist who tries to use them as tools for his own creativity rather than as “shortcuts” for turning ideas into “visuals” for some practical communicative process or just for “fun.” Of course, all these digital techniques keep changing, and becoming “more powerful — sometimes in strange and chaotic ways.

The sunset also changes, but it follows the same reliable path, year after year. In a few weeks, it will be the Autumn Equinox.

Who Thinks of "Praying for Water"?

The Pope's Prayer Intention for the month of September 2026 is a simple one, but it is something that we in the rich nations of the world rarely think about, even though we bear great responsibility for many of the problems related to this fundamental human resource. 

We Christians say we want to "do the will of Christ" but when we are asked to have even a prayerful awareness of God's creation and the physical needs of billions of our brothers and sisters, some of us are tempted to think, "this is just ecological politics." No! The Gospel renews our whole humanity, and in Christ we begin to see everything in this world in a new way, and through the grace of the Holy Spirit we rediscover our vocation to be stewards of the created world, to be grateful for all of God's gifts - which are given to everyone and therefore must be shared with every person. 

The Pope's intention is no "Vatican foray" into the brutal game of power politics with all its ambitions, intrigue, and vanity. Rather, it proclaims our Gospel vocation to participate in the justice and mercy of Christ's redeeming love for the whole person and all of creation. The transforming love of the Heart of Jesus "already" penetrates the reality of the here-and-now, because every moment of time and space finds its true meaning in Him, and in the light of His promise to "make all things new."

Watch The Pope's Video every month. I find these YouTube videos useful for fostering a more conscious solidarity with Pope Leo in my daily prayer "for the intentions of our Holy Father recommended for this month." Open this link to see and hear his meditation for September: PopeVideo

Pope's Prayer Intention: "For the Care of Water"

Lord of Life,
You have given us the gift of water,
source of fruitfulness, freshness, and hope.
It quenches thirst, nourishes the earth, and heals wounds. 

We thank You,
because it is also a symbol of your grace and love
that renews us through Baptism. 

Today we ask You to teach us to safeguard it
with gratitude, justice, and responsibility.
Forgive us for turning it into a commodity,
forgetting that it is a universal gift,
a right without borders, meant for all your children. 

We see with pain so many brothers and sisters
who lack clean water,
who walk for miles to find it,
who become ill due to its scarcity. 

May your Spirit make us pilgrims of the essential,
able to live with simplicity,
denouncing waste and pollution,
defending the right of every brother and sister
to drink without fear and without inequality. 

May our care for water
be a sign of love for the Creator
and a commitment to the lives of the poor,
educating new generations to value
and protect the Earth’s resources. 

Amen.

Prayer for the Care of Creation 2026

"Although the challenges before us are enormous, God does not leave us without the means of healing and transformation. In place of the weapons of war, the God of peace grants us the strength to heal, to reconcile and to build a civilization of love. In this way, we are called to safeguard the many ‘ecosystems’ entrusted to us: the ecosystems of creation, of human relationships and of the human heart itself.

"Let us imagine a world in which the energies currently invested in war are directed toward integral human development, to overcoming poverty, protecting human dignity and reconciling divided peoples. Such a vision reflects faith in the coming of God’s Kingdom.

"The true tools for building peace are not weapons of destruction, instead they are truth, dialogue, patience, goodness, justice, mercy, understanding, care and love. These flow from hearts shaped by the Gospel and sustained by God’s grace. Only these qualities possess the power to transform individuals, renew communities and heal the wounds of our world."

~Pope Leo XIV

Message for "The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation," September 1, 2026 (excerpt).

The Blog is NOT Broken, But…

…but the links that I have used for nearly 15 years no longer work. My proprietary “domain address” no longer works, and I don’t know if I will be able to restore it. None of the links to individual Posts that I have shared so often — links that are all over the internet — can be used. Open any one of them and you get a message like the one pictured here. The Blog and all of its posts are still online, but the address has defaulted back to the free “Blogger” address which is http://www.johnjanaro.blogspot.com — a situation which I find quite frustrating. Even though most of what I share of my own writing here is “rough,” I had built up a modest readership, and many of these readers may not be able to find this site anymore. The traffic on the Blog has plummeted to a fraction of what it was just a few weeks ago.

I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Dear people, I don’t know anything about Internet technology. Every effort to fix the problem only seems to make it worse.

I shall continue to post here, sharing the talents I already have been given as best as I can. But I don’t know what it will take to recover my readers. Really, it’s a mess, and I am at my wits end. I have no energy for any of this.

I will henceforth use the originally provided “blogspot” address. Please let me know if there are further problems with finding the blog and its posts.

Dear God, help me.

Saint Augustine’s Day

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S DAY.

“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You” (Confessions I:1).

Pope Leo Visits the “Meeting For Friendship Among Peoples”

Yesterday, Pope Leo XIV visited the 47th annual “Meeting For Friendship Among Peoples,” a weeklong cultural festival hosted by the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation in Rimini, Italy. We were able to watch a livestream of his afternoon speech. It was a beautiful moment. It also brought back memories from 35 years ago, when I attended the 1991 “Meeting” during this same week in August. I have some things written about that experience in an old journal I kept in those days, which I should try to find.

Here is a selection from the words of Pope Leo yesterday afternoon:

“I invite you, both within the Communion and Liberation Movement and within the particular Churches to which each of you belongs, to undertake this experience of walking together. It involves each person listening, allowing himself or herself to be transformed by the faith of others, and together, discerning new insights, taking further steps and responding courageously in obedience to the Holy Spirit. Synodality is not the name of a process, but the very nature of a people who, through friendship and encounter with others, come to recognize that they belong to God alone. In this way, authority is transformed into service, one that honors differences and fosters their harmony. In these troubled times, such a way of life constitutes a true sign of the times. Let us bear witness to the fact that every charism is given for the common good, that every gift increases when it is shared, and that every fear can be overcome. We must make this tangible, credible and desirable. You will know how to do this, dear friends, by following in the footsteps of your founder: by cultivating unity among yourselves, with those called to guide the Movement, with the Apostolic See that has recognized you, and with the Successor of Peter. May the Holy Spirit teach us the practice of communion. May he grant us a love for it, an appreciation of its beauty and the hope that sustains it.”

Mary Queen and Mother

“You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord, / a royal diadem held by your God” (Isaiah 62:3).

August 22: Feast of the Queenship of Mary. It is the "glorious mystery" of the exaltation of the incomparable maternal love of the Woman who bore Christ in her womb, that maternal love that reaches out to each of us who are called to be God's children, brothers and sisters of her Son, her children.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, lowly servant, heavenly Queen, Mother of the Lord, our Mother. Salve Regina!

[Image: detail from an 18th century Mexican painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe includes the addition of a crown, according to the customary style of inserting details not present on the original image.]