So, it appears our Master, Lord, and Savor chose to let this elimination of our physical structure in its glorious use for Him, and its almost hundred and fifty plus years of incredible service from its founders in the 1860’s who built the church in 1890’s to our community of today. It is happening and we should follow His lead.

We must be patient with what will come. And do this with the full Power, Grace and Mercy of our One and only Master in all His Omnipotent and Omnipresence that is in us all, created in His Image and Likeness and Who is always at our side.

Most importantly, to do His will, we must be open to discerning all options He sends through His Most Holy Spirit.

And this will only happen if we find a way, through His way, to remain a community. I do not know what this means but it must be. (Sorry about all the ‘must do’s but we are ‘most’ in His service first, foremost, and completely.)

Never think otherwise.

As a member of this community that exceeds a century and a half, for forty plus years, I played a very small part, albeit one that keeps growing smaller at times. He gave me the gift of Parkinson’s, probably to slow me down and teach me patience , empathy and the increasing daily knowledge of His true love in so many categories. He was so successful with me that I thank Him for it every day so many times I lose count, and I thank Him for you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Though many of you did not ‘know’ me well except through the stories I believe He had me tell, I grew to know you with a deep appreciation as Secrete Warriors of the mighty One and only God. The book ‘Mortal Combat ‘by Fr. Dwight Longnecker, explains the concept of the Secrete Warriors of the Secrete Son. Best book I’ve read in decades. Thank you Mary!

As the physical aspect of my life, His temple, my body started to and continues to deteriorate , affecting even the closest of relationships because many of my abilities ‘to do’ were taken away, and people close to me struggled with what was happening to the point where they floated away – and I take full blame.

He has kept me in incredible shape, way past the due date. And I daily ask him to continue. I ‘hope’ for at least another quarter century and agreed when He ‘advised me’ to not only listen to my doctors but to put their efforts and suggestions for me in action.

Because that is what St. Wenceslaus warriors do – a lot of action – not so many words.

I love you all very much. I feel like bursting with it! I pray for you every day and think about you many times. I cry over the impact this has had on many of you.

I will keep writing, more aggressively now, though I rue losing Martin’s ‘most loving leash – held by the hand of the Son’. He kept my feet on the ground and was the prime mentor in my journey to accepting Jesus in everything and crediting Him, Our Lord, also in everything. Jesus, Who I lovingly call my ‘Jewish Boss’, the best ‘Boss ‘ever by all the universes.

After all, He was born a Jew, raised as a Jew, taught as a Jew… not a single letter of the law will pass away… died a Jew and came back to life as a Jew. I fear the day we forget our true ancestry, people chosen by Him exclusively.

So, there is no goodbye. There is only that unbelievable anticipation when we figure out how to remain and strengthen our community, solely in His name.

Or perhaps we will see each other next in our true, forever and only Home, that He has prepared for us. That place where their will be no more tears, no more pain, no more death…

With all His love and mine, daily and forever…

Clement

PS. In the meantime bulletin writing will be posted on my Substack page, clementcharles.substack.com or if we ever get the help we need, our web pages, Mary’s – fishtownproductions.com and clementcharles.org.

For background information Please see Letter One

This began when we assumed the role of empty nesters. Everyone off to college, some doing spectacularly so, others gaining enough practical life experiences that propelled them to success soon after graduating, some both.

It was down to me to participating at our Parish with mass, being a lector, a eucharistic minister and thriving in all these categories which clearly our Master wanted me to do. Medical disorders continued getting in the way, but I stuck to the course. Without God, this would have been impossible.

Again, I am reminded of Martin’s message of following Jesus and doing His will and not mine. I found myself much closer to doing this versus the years I did not know how and therefore resisting His Will despite doing everything I could. It took a long fall down a deep well to teach me the ONLY way was His way. Now the decades of discernment came into fruitful play.

It was also the Fr. Andy years. This man’s sermons I so badly wanted to record. When I asked him, he answered “Oh my goodness no! We’ve got enough of that hubbub floating around now!” with a chuckle. Fr. Andy played a role in saving our parish, our community, our church though we don’t know how huge it was. I suspect it was massive. My perception was he had his finger in the dyke by insisting he would continue to say mass until the Parish Council worked up a beautiful and God driven plan to save us as a parish.

Going back to what the diocese decided on our first plan, the relief to me was incredible. St. Wenceslaus became my true home. We owned and ran our church. I helped in any way I could, excepting those periods when Jesus signaled me to ‘take a break’ by limiting, quite substantially , my physical abilities. But what a gift! Such a massive improvement in patience and more reasons to depend only on Him!

When Fr. Andy finally had to leave, we began our own mission, the incorporation of black priests into our Parish. I believe we were gifted with the first two because the bishop and whoever else makes such decisions, seemed to send us ones fresh into the missionary business from Africa, so that we could ‘train’ them in ‘Catholic American Culture’.

We were gifted with quite a number of black priests switching eventually to black priests from with the United States. I believe the second black priest taught us that ‘God is Great! ‘ and we would respond ‘all the time!’ and then the priest would repeat ‘And all the time!’ which we answered, ‘God is great!’. He began every sermon this way.

In a sense, these were the golden years for me at St. Wenceslaus. Fr. Andy baptized two of my grandkids and Fr. Elias one. I participated to the absolute limit of my abilities, I fell more deeply in love with our parish, our people, our Council all led by Deacon Martin as he followed the only way, our Master’s. Most importantly my love for Him deepened and keeps deepening faster, and I had loved Him all my life.

(0ver)

Please rest comfortably that Jesus’s will is the only way we can proceed. Exercise your right and obligation to pray daily, often, that we follow His will. This can be done almost every minute of every single day just by talking with Him, emphasizing our gratitude constantly for what He did and does for us.

Clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.org… clementcharles.substack.com

PS. It seems Martin is following me everywhere here. There are more roads (everywhere) that are named either Martin Rd (North, East, South, and West along with NE, SE, SW, NW) or Martin Way with the same extensions. There is also a St. Martin Abbey (Benedictines) and a St. Martin University about a mile and a half from our home. Whoever this Martin was, he must have been a super popular guy out here.

Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397) was a 4th-century Roman soldier turned monk and bishop, renowned as a patron saint of France, soldiers, and conscientious objectors. Famous for cutting his cloak in half to share with a beggar, he established early French monasticism and is a major figure in Western Christianity.

From Facebook and a page dedicated to Pope Leo

I once discerned for the priesthood with the Jesuits. One day, during one of my interviews, a Jesuit who was, at the time, the president of Loyola Jesuit College asked me which, for me, was the most difficult among the three vows of Religious life.

I looked at him and, with conviction, said it was poverty. I said this because Religious life restricted the ownership of property and wealth, and for me, I could go any length to help my family if they were in need.

But he looked at me and said he didn’t think that was it. He said that, for him, obedience would be the most difficult for me.

I didn’t know why he said that, but I remember telling him that I loved working under people who appreciated my efforts and that, when that did not happen, it could affect my work.

That was ten years ago. Today, I look back and see the truth in what he said. Obedience, for me, is difficult, not because I wouldn’t have been able to live it, but because it takes great humility and love of Jesus to obey authority even when you know you are right.

In one story about Jesus and St. Maria Faustina I heard, Jesus had told her to go to a place where He would meet her. Coincidentally, the Religious superior gave St. Maria Faustina a task to perform in the community at the same time. She didn’t know what to do. A dilemma. But she stayed back in the community and did what the Superior had asked her to do.

When Jesus later appeared to her, He praised her, saying: “By obeying your superiors, you have obeyed Me.”

Obedience is the most difficult vow Religious and priests take, yet it is what holds the Catholic Church together.

How do you see a Bishop who is out to frustrate you and still say: “Yes, my Lord”?

How do you see a Superior whom you know doesn’t like you and still say: “Yes, my Superior”?

Today, as Pope Leo XIV celebrates his first papacy, I ask all Catholics to pray for priests and Religious whose vow of obedience has placed them under undue pressure, that God’s grace may be sufficient for them.

Now going through betrayal

Every week I write an article. health permitting, for our church Sunday bulletin. I’ve submitted these missives since around 1999. Currently I am on the second of the three letters to my friends and fellow parishioners. The first letter follows this ‘preface’ or background of our current situation and history of the church.

Preface

Brief History: St. Wenceslaus Church in Gill’s Pier, Michigan, is a historic Roman Catholic parish and serves as a testament to the rural ethnic community. It was added to the State Register of Historic Sites and features a Michigan Historical Marker.

It was established in 1890 to serve Bohemian immigrants. Located on Kolarik Road, it is known for its brick structure (rebuilt in 1914), ornate cast-iron cemetery crosses, and a long history of community chicken dinners (Certifiably the World’s best chicken dinner). Settlers from Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) built the town and served as the primary workforce, including families like the Kolariks, Korsons, and Houdeks.

It is a parish that exceeds one hundred and thirty-six years of continual service, has more than doubled in size since I joined in 1993, much more in the summer when our summer residents arrive for three months or so. We sit on a clay dune hundreds of feet above the great inland freshwater sea Michigan, a mile away. We are about six miles north of the forty-fifth parallel surrounded by cherry orchards, mainly tart cherries. We, and surrounding six counties, still supply over half the United States tart cherry’s even though this crop is highly weather dependent in an area hit harder by global warming.

This is a strong parish, in its love for our Master, our community, and those in greater need whether financially or spiritually.

My parish is again, slated to be closed to be a ‘limited use’ church by the diocese to which it belongs.

The diocese of record first tried to shutter this incredibly strong community of faith in the early 2000’s. We staved off closing by buying our church from the diocese, and having a sacramental priest say mass on Sunday. We took over all the finances and management for our church with a fund balance exceeding $500,000 now (we of almost eighty families - there were thirty-five or so when I showed up, kids in tow in 1993) and established the Parish Council as director of all church activities with the input of our Deacon – the holiest man you will meet. In the end we became the first church in our diocese to own and run itself while still fulfilling our obligations to the diocese who tried to close us. We supply funds to the local Catholic school and many charities that help our community, Catholic or not.

The reason for trying to shutter the first time? Guessing the excuse of not enough priests (and probably financial). This is where a brave late eighties to early nineties in age Franciscan stepped in, defying the diocese. He just continued to say mass every Sunday despite being told not to. He led a Native American Mission close to us, about six miles away. His persistence gave us the time to put together our proposal. We became the first parish in our diocese to be self-owned, self-governed, while still fulfilling our obligations to the diocese.

The diocese began sending missionary African priests to be our sacramental minister as our Franciscan missionary, Fr. Andy, had to retire at around ninety-five years of age. We ended up being missionaries to them introducing them and helping them minister and adapt by teaching them American Catholic Culture while embracing what they had to give us of their own cultures. We funded a well in the first one, Fr. Elias home town in Africa. Over a decade we received many new Black priests eventually from the United States for various reasons including rest and recuperation, mostly due to our welcoming atmosphere and willingness to do anything for Jesus and them.

About two months ago the diocese reversed their decision and shuttered us into a ‘limited’ use church, essentially setting up our destruction as a Parish. Over the years they worked in submarine mode to set this up. First, they made us turn the title back over to the Diocese a few years back or we would not be recognized as a Catholic Church. Blackmail anyone? Other such moves continued until they laid the bomb on us despite our incredible members, our parishioner’s dedication and a population that continues to grow.

The reason this time? Never really clarified. Many called the Bishop’s letter to us vague. Again, I suspect part of the truth is money. While we are self-sufficient, I suspect there are several diocesan eyes on our $500,000 fund balance. When this is the reason (often it is across the country) we lose tens of thousands of souls in what used to be the ‘shining light on the hill’, the used to be ‘good old USA’. The Church has demonstrated many flaws in this area over a long period of decades not to mention its other flaws like the cover ups of issues like pedophilia and corruption. Yet through this our ‘little Church on top of the hill’ at the end of ‘Alleluia Row’ remained faithful and loyal to our true Master and His church and weathered the various mishaps of the world’s largest collection of Christians, 1.4 billion of us.

We have begun several steps to stop the process even though it appears to do so is impossible at this point. However, we believe nothing is impossible with God. We begin a nine-week Novena this Thursday May 7, 2026, ending three days before the official transfer date of July 1, 2026.

Bulletin Blurb May 3, 2026

“The Hour of Power” prayer group will be meeting in the chapel at St. Wenceslaus on Tuesdays from 4pm-5pm, till July 7th (9weeks). We will gather to pray The Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena in Honor of the Most Holy Face of Jesus. Come join us at any time during the hour or if at home pray with us in spirit. We are praying on behalf of St. Wenceslaus parish for the Grace, Courage and Mercy of God to help us and bring us the light of life. For more information call Mary Leon at 231-432-0016.(John 8:12) “No follower of mine wonders in the dark; he shall have the light of life.” Let us Hope!

Jesus, we Trust in you! Nothing is impossible WITH God!

We have sought alternative solutions like establishing the Seven Sisters – a mission group of nuns in Guinea operating with no money – at our Parish as a sanctuary or a missionary outpost using our rectory as a convent. They will bring a priest. We can renovate and add on to the existing rectory. We believe their introduction to our Church will benefit the entire community in their demonstration of their way of life, introduction of a new culture and work with expanding our farm efforts, since this was and is a community of famers as are the Sisters. We are currently trying to get them over $7,000.00 for a well at their headquarters in Guinea, Africa. We have a strong personal connection with them.

We have sought help from a group called ‘Save Rome of the West’

https://www.saveromeofthewest.com

Their mission Statement is…

To protect and preserve the unique architectural and spiritual heritage of Catholic churches throughout the world. We understand the significance of these sacred places and work tirelessly to support parishes in their preservation efforts.

A number of Parish Council and Parishioners are also pursuing whatever legal means we might have available.

Yes, we feel betrayed, again. So, we continue to learn from Jesus and His betrayal, not just the big one on Holy Thursday, but the millions upon millions that occur amongst ‘Christians’ daily to this very moment.

Yet we, the loyal servants of St. Wenceslaus, Gill’s Pier, Michigan, https://stwenceslausgp.org continue to build and operate around the will of our Master, not our own.

Letter One

Dear Friends and fellow members of St. Wenceslaus

A very few of you might remember I joined St. Wenceslaus in 1993. Yea, somehow you let me in, this reprobate Franciscan Irish Catholic from the hills of southern Ohio. It was the best thing that happened to me in our move to ‘the county,’ Leelanau. It remains so. You are my parish until I make the Great Leap, in whatever form we are.

It started with Fr. Charlie, who many of us were very sad when he left, especially those he hired to teach Religious Ed because we always got that incredible perch dinner at the end of the school year that he himself prepared. Fr. Hunko laid us all off within a month or two of getting here. It was Fr. Charlie who asked me to write articles for the St. Mary’s bulletin under the umbrella of Family Thoughts. His replacement, Fr. Hunko dropped it soon after arriving.

Was not long after I got a phone call from Phylis asking me if I would consider writing for the St. Wenceslaus bulletin. She offered to pay me! I said, “No!”. It was an honor to do it for free. Probably got a missive in most weeks for over three decades, with a few breaks so I could play with doctors, until this latest round of medical games. Figured the best I could do is finish it by writing more consistently with changes coming that might eliminate its need. I’ll still be putting out an article weekly on clementcharles.substack.com.

It didn’t take Martin long to spot a willing person (even if I did not know that at the time) as he needed another soul to help him in his ministry of helping our little church. Yup, got stuck with cutting cabbage in the basement that first year with Elmer and did so for about six years as well as calling Bingo before Parkinson’s cut into my physical ability to do such things. Always felt lucky it was just Parkinson’s, but the worst impact was losing the ability to help with the dinners.

But, as you all know, Martin is persistent in helping others follow the Lord’s way and not their own, so I found myself becoming a Lector and a Eucharistic Minister for the homebound with my primary care for the folks in the Toy House, an assisted living facility. The relationships I developed due solely to Jesus’ help with those dear ladies carried through years and today I still carry them in my heart and prayers. One of them, Tillie, made it to 109, still bright as a shining star.

In the early years my family would participate in the Mass with me. I admit to ‘forcing’ my three children to serve as Alter acolytes. For a few years they were ‘it’, as pickin’s were slim for young people to help. They did virtually ever Sunday. By the time they the hit high school they started to get a lot of help from kids at St. Mary’s (local Catholic School), and I allowed them to ‘retire’.

Even so, that included still getting them to church. Imagine rousing three teenagers at 7:30 AM on a Sunday, one of two days they could sleep in during the school year.

I’ll continue with more of my personal history with our Faith Community in ensuing letters as it reflects many of us. I’ve also offered to put together missives for anyone in the Parish and will still welcome any ideas from anyone.

I know we have some ‘interesting’ moments coming down the road. I have kept all of you in my daily prayers since I joined way back when and continue to do so. The last two decades you were my true home and my family even some of you ‘slightly ‘cantankerous ones! Your prayers have lifted me out of the ‘dung’ heap many times.

As we take our next steps, please let us take out steps together. Be open to any door the Lord opens, and we will survive as a Catholic Community. Listen to Him because His way is the only way. Stash our own egos and pray. Jesus will see us through if we follow the way He wants and not our own agendas no matter how noble we feel about ours. Discern before deciding.

In various letters and comments of late, that pass through my texts and emails, I’ve seen great hope for us. And with that hope we will continue as that glorious ‘little church on top of the hill at the end of Alleluia Row’!

Let us ‘come together’ as the Beatles tried to teach us in the song of that name. Everyone is different, as Martin so often reminds me. This involves love for Him, and all created in His image and likeness. And when we love, we respect another person’s point of view.

All His Love, Grace and Peace be with all of us, we of the parish of St. Wenceslaus!

Clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.org… clementcharles.substack.com

Ekii Putra

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DWRRhoW1R/

You know something Powerful is happening when Muslim media worldwide praise Pope Leo as a friend to humanity...the 1st time in 800 years since the crusades!! Pope Leo is the model for leadership & speaking truth & love to Power the world hungers for...if he can continue to build community worldwide, we may actually see REAL CHANGE for the better!!

“It feels refreshing to see an American voice on the international stage speaking with empathy and balance.”

That’s how many people are reacting to Pope Leo XIV, whose tone and approach stand out in today’s political environment.

From encouraging peace over conflict to highlighting compassion for migrants and vulnerable communities, the American-born Pope has focused on empathy, restraint, and moral responsibility, values many believe deserve more attention in global leadership.

It’s not only what he says, but how he says it. There’s no aggressive tone or divisive messaging, just a steady emphasis on human dignity and respect for every life.

For many watching around the world, that difference feels noticeable and genuinely refreshing.

#PopeLeoXIV

You know something Powerful is happening when Muslim media worldwide praise Pope Leo as a friend to humanity...the 1st time in 800 years since the crusades!! Pope Leo is the model for leadership & speaking truth & love to Power the world hungers for...if he can continue to build community worldwide, we may actually see REAL CHANGE for the better!!

I’ve fallen into the tradition to run this article every Psalm Sunday. It slipped to Good Friday this year due to ‘extenuating ‘circumstances. It is a ‘rerun’. It’s theme is Easter, and it is so appropriate when it comes to Him, and His greatest miracle. May we always adore and worship Him in the Eucharist. After all, we are an Easter people. And father…

Read more

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.

Isaiah

Photo - Christmas tree where the crosses of all our loved ones hang.

By the time you reach into your seventh decade, chances are, you’ve experienced just about most of what life here, on Terra, has to offer, particularly the season of the coming of Him. Some of it is kind – this we should all strive for regardless of our personal circumstances. Some chapters are ‘interesting’ as my neurologist tells me as she finds something else. Some chapters are a true challenges – the refinement by the fire of the Omnipotent God Triune.

It is all about how you look at it.

As I sit here on a stormy afternoon in the Great Pacific Northwest, as often, I think of my home parish, St. Wenceslaus, Gill’s Pier, Michigan. I miss them terribly. But then, I was offered the gift of the Secular Order of Franciscans and so, as in Gill’s Pier, we found people of like mind.

St. Francis was beyond extraordinary by any measure. When asked who the greatest sinner was by one of his companions his reply was, “I am”.

This holiest of men considered himself the greatest sinner?! In this simple revelation of history, I said to myself, “We are all the world’s greatest sinners.”

My lifelong experience with the way of Francis led me to revere the nativity scene. As a child my parent’s tradition was to put one straw in the manger for every good deed. Most years were full of straw! Francis is credited with having made the first one. Every year when physically able, I have re-created his – though I added a bit of ‘electricity’. The photos are all pictures of friends and relatives who made the Great Leap. My father made the creche over fifty years ago.

And so. I take my memories of the people I’ve met and wrap them deep around my soul. I find great peace. The kind of peace you find this year, particularly December 24^th, the ‘Eve’ and December 25th, when the world stops for a few moments. I hold all in my heart and prayers daily. What better thing can we do?

· Love Him

· Love all others Created in His Image and Likeness.

And never forget – God is always with us!

Clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.substack.com

This an eye witness account of what really happened On December 7th at Clark’s Field (December 8th in the Philippines) - where the vast majority of American’s Pacific Air Core was locked and loaded but on the ground.

In 1981 A colonel in the US Air Force (Shane)interviewed Major Aloysius Suttmann while studying for her Ph.D. for eighteen hours on his war experience. Big Al, as he came to be known, is the witness.

An excerpt of his recorded translating (available in the book Faithful: Because of Love a True story of the Defenders of Bataan - available at Amazon by searching Faithful: Clement Charles.

The transcript… Disc Two and Three in the book.

Shane: OK now we are up to the point... where… the war happens (stated very somberly). Pearl harbor Is invaded December 7th, 1941.

Big Al: Attacked not invaded, yeah.

Shane: Yes...

Big Al: The Philippines were invaded.

Shane: Yeah, attacked and ran. Umm… What happened on the Philippines? What was taking place there? Were you aware of this and how soon were you aware of it?

Big Al: Yes. Just before December 8th or 7th depending on what part of the world you are in because you crossed the international dateline, we… Uhm… we’re put on complete alert, so we moved out into the field where our guns were installed. Up until that time we had our guns installed along the edge of the field, but we would go back to the barracks at night. We would leave the guns out there and go back out in the morning and train.

Now about four days before… in early December we were put on continuous alert. In the day, the morning the war started, we were in our positions I was at the end of the field when the airplanes took off. The runway.

Shane: Yeah, the runway.

Big Al: On the north-south runway, I was on the South end that was where I had my guns, and the word came down that Pearl Harbor was intact. And that was 5:00 Philippine time yeah, because of the…

Shane: 5:00 AM?

Big Al: Yes, 5:00 AM Philippine time and 7:00 AM in Pearl Harbor I guess right? Yeah, we got the word that Pearl Harbor was attacked, and we should have been aware of an attack and be ready, but we weren’t (laughter) and at 12:00 we got it!

Shane: 12:00 that evening?

Big Al: No, 12:00 noon.

Shane: The following…

Big Al: No, not that day! That day! Or the 8th in the Philippine 7th (Pearl Harbor). They got it in the morning. We got it at noon. They caught all the airplanes the big bombers on the field loaded with bombs.

Shane: So, you were basically not prepared at all?

Big Al: Well, somebody failed to give the commands.

Shane: If the planes were on the field...

Big Al: The word came down that McArthur was trying to get clarification from Roosevelt to attack Formosa with these B seventeens. They were loaded with bombs, and we were able to go to Formosa with these bombers and bomb the Japanese airfields up in that area!

Supposedly the order never came but it left the airplanes sit there and they killed somewhere between 100 to 150 Army Air Corps people in those airplanes. They were just sitting there! Poor guys were waiting for the command and even the pursuit guys were sitting on the field.

Shade: They were all wiped out.

Big Al: yes, mmm…uh huh… most Of them were.

Shane: Now you were sitting at the end of this field, the runway with your anti-aircraft guns and you saw some action right up front.

Big Al: Well, the first indication was around when the mess truck had come out... I can’t even tell you what food we were going to have that day. We were going to have pork chops we were going to have potatoes and I think spinach. We had a cherry cobbler dessert or something

We’ve just gotten our food, and someone looked up and they said look at that! Though there’s two beautiful flights of our Navy airplanes! We’ve counted them. There were 27 in each flight. Which made for fifty-four and they were in V formation.

Then some guy took my filled glasses and looked up and said those are Navy planes, those are Japanese!

You could see the red dot on the fusion fuselage and about that time you get that terrible, which you didn’t know at that time, that sickening storm sound… a… Where bombs are dropping and you get that (make swooshing whistling sound). You couldn’t hear it, you know, if you are not underneath it. We were to the side of it.

And then the explosions!

All through the airplanes just anywhere up to about two thousand yards away from us. We were about one thousand yards from the end of the runway.

Shane: How many of you… wherever. We’re at the end of the runway?

Big Al: We had about Thirty. There was a platoon. Two guns. Two anti-aircraft guns. 37mm. So, there were about 15 men per gun. I was a second Lieutenant at the time.

Shane: So, you had gotten a field Commission?

Big Al: Well, I was a Sergeant on that day. I got the second Lieutenant the next day. After the war started. Yeah.

Shane: So, you oversaw the unit?

Big Al: Well, we’ve had a first Lieutenant in charge, but he got shot through the soldier then afternoon during the fight see after the bombers came in their carrier-based attack craft came in.

Of course, the machine gun the whole area including us, the anti-aircraft emplacements. They machine gun everything! Everything that wasn’t set on fire yet. They were after the anti-aircraft emplacements, the troops.

If they saw you walking around, they would strafe you. See they strafed through my position. They got the Lieutenant in the left shoulder. So, we lost him. But he didn’t die. He got back to America before they caught us. They put him on a hospital ship; you see and sent him back to America.

Shane: Let me ask you. You were talking about the sound of the bombs coming down do you recall your feelings at that moment? Was it terror...

Big Gal: Lost all my appetite… yes very much so, oh yes (To the terror question)… You lost all your appetite for food, every bit of it. And we had Filipinos (chuckles) who were the food attendants that were serving the food off the truck and after it was all over with, we never did see those Filipinos again. No one ever knew what happened to them. They just took off. There were civilians and we hired them.

Shane: So, they took off into the hills?

Big Al: Just got scared and left, yeah. It was very sickening, Oh yeah. You got sick to your stomach. Everyone got into their foxholes.

You think, am I going to throw up?!

You saw all this explosion going on. Oh…

Shane: Did you ever feel inclined to take off the Filipinos (laughter) and head for the hills?

Big Al: Crazy thing. Uhm… everyone of course got into their foxholes, see? And we had holes dug around our guns. And I had a 45 sidearm and it never forget, I couldn’t get to the hole but went where we had the ammunition buried below ground.

I went in there and sat on those boxes and shot at those airplanes with my little 45, when they came over. When they came back.

All the time I was sitting on these explosives!

So, he had no thought to other dangers that if they would have fired into that you would have exploded, see? My Sergeant, one of my other sergeants, he had his air matters perforated with three or four shots. He became very angry because he had to patch his air mattress. You know these kinds of weird things. Your pup tents were full of holes. See, we were more concerned with patching them up.

You know The funny thing is, the only person we lost in my unit was Lieutenant. And everybody kept saying you know somebody probably shot him from the ground. I don’t think they did because it wasn’t a bad fellow.

Shane: OK, we will continue now. I’ll ask you basically how long was the initial bombing…?

Big al: Well, The bombing by the bombers of course was just… over within... what… However long it takes for the bombs to hit the ground. Ahh… Two, 3, 4 minutes?

Shane: And then the planes took off again...

Big Al: Yeah, they left. They went on. And then you sat down with a kind of sigh of relief, but everything was burning in front of you. Including the hangers and the B-17’s were burning. Of course, the bombs were burning and they were exploding? Because you had a lot of action and so on.

And no one noticed when the attack craft came in, they came in within about Five minutes after the bombing attack! So, they timed it well. They came in with something like 54 to 60 attack craft.

They came within five minutes of the...(Rapid change of thought) and of course your attention was to the field which was burning and there was commotion in your area. We weren’t hit. Then suddenly, we looked up and there were the attack craft. We kept thinking it was our own craft coming back to the land.

Until suddenly you saw this fire coming at you out of the wings and they weren’t friendly. No, no, no! They weren’t friendly. No, they weren’t friendly… (somber chuckle).

Shane: did you know what kind of planes they were? Were you able to identify... What types of bombers? Did you know the classification?

Big Al: Yes, they were two engine. I don’t recall what the bombers were. But yeah, we were trained! We recognized them! The boy recognized them before the bombs were dropped quote! Luther did! They had a long fuselage. They had two inches on them. I forget what the number (identification number of them was). But we knew what type they were. And the same with the attack zeros. We knew what they were once we got involved... (pause) … Yup… We shot down seven of them that day!

But none of the high bombers. They flew right above the range of the three-inch guns which was about 18,000 feet. The bombers came in somewhere about 19,000 feet. Or three-inch guns were shooting at them. And those days we had powdered campuses and they were bursting below the bombers. We didn’t get anything. But we got seven of the attack craft with our 37mm anti-aircraft guns.

Shane: You had two guns, didn’t you?

Big Al: Yes, we had two of them yes.

Saying: how many guns were placed basically around the South end of the field where you were? And the other words were he the only guns...?

Big Al: No, no, no. At the end of each runway, they had 37mm guns along with a 150-caliber gun. And so, they (the guns) we’re at the north-south runway in the east West runway. We had one on each end. We were on the South runway. Somebody was up there on the West runway. So, We were on the South runway. Somebody was up there on the West End. You were sitting within approximately of about... Ohh, I’d say about three football fields away from the end of the runway. A little bit off to the side.

Shane: How far were you from the next unit? How far away were they? In other words...

Big Al: About a half a mile? Maybe three quarters of a mile. Yeah, it was kind of V shaped.

Shane: let me ask you your reaction as to the way the truth performed. The American troops

Big Al: OK now I must get back to one of my favorite subjects... This is a philosophy I’ve had, and I think my feeling is that the generation that was born after World War One that became the soldiers of World War II came through some very, very rigid times in that era. Plus, the fact the Society of the time is not exactly Victorian like but once the roaring 20s were over, they took on a very rigid attitude because of the depression and everything

As a result, going back to the fact you had this deep respect for authority, for your parents, for your teachers, I think that helped make one of the finest armies this country ever had

I don’t think you’ll ever assemble another group of men in that number. You are talking somewhere around ten million people that have the dedication and commitment to soldering like that group did at that time.

I really didn’t find too many bad soldiers.

I can’t think of a really bad soldier I had period hey! There were plenty of them that had fear. I had fear. And if some of them would love to run some of them did run. But the commitment to get the job done and do what you were told, even in the face of death crossing that field...

You had to be crazy to cross that field when they were firing!

That the commitment was such, the dedication was such, I’ve never seen it since and maybe never again I think it was the finest armies ever assembled, the World War 2 forces. Had to be.

Considering the odds they had to face.

Shane: the positive response to, in other words to the depression that had been so bad if they had not gone through the depression, you don’t think that the soldiers would have had it been this commitment as they were.

Big Al: Did not think we would have been as finely tuned. He was hungry. We were all hungry in those days. There was no money. People worked hard. You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and you did it.

There was no welfare. They tied up your bank account. All you could get was ten percent of your savings. They did everything to you that was nasty and you had the will and the grit to say; we will live through this. And they did!

They came out of the depression of course in the late thirties and they began to recover. A lot of them became soldiers. Lots of them became soldiers then. Ten million of them.

Or ten to twelve million people were involved in that thing before the war was over. The greatest segment of military people in the history of this country. You get ten or twelve million involved Navy, marines, soldiers…

Shane: Yeah, that’s interesting because…

Big Al: I don’t think... I know they did not have it during the civil war period. People were buying people. Paying people to go off and fight for them in the civil war. I don’t think we had that attitude during the Revolutionary War although there were a lot of great patriots. I think the greatest wave of patriotism and commitment for this nation occurred during those years.

Shane: Could you compare it to World War one?

Big Al: I don’t think they had it in World War. I don’t think it touched this many homes in World War One. I don’t think it touches many homes in World War One as it touched in World War Two. I mean you take the example of the Sullivan boys when they lost five sons on one ship.

That touched and hurt deeply.

Shane: Let me ask you in World War II, with the outfits you served in, were there any ethnic breakup or breakdowns or as I should say, as far as the troops were concerned. Could you tell me that?

Big al: well, I happened to be in an organization where they were called Mexicans. We called them Spanish Americans at the time, but they were primarily called Mexicans. We were about sixty precent Anglo which I am, and about forty percent Mexican troops which were combination of Indians and Spanish.

And yes, we had division we had trouble all the time period. They’re always fighting each other, the boys from Texas and New Mexico. They just had this disrespect for the Mexican people. When payday came you always have problems because of this. I never could understand that and why that friction continued.

We had one or two blocks in the whole army group. Ahhh… as to the division between Irish, German and Polish we were primarily made-up of Texans and New Mexico boys, with a few from the Midwest like me. So therefore, we didn’t have any ethnic (speaking of ethnic not racial) division because most of the Texans and new Mexican people were English speaking background.

Yes, most of them were English speaking. Some came out of Tennessee and those areas but some of the southwestern people and umm… with the folks from Tennessee and there were some from Virginia, that went out to the West, they went out there before the Germans came to this country and the Irish came to this country. So, they were really Texans. Most were English speaking really.

Shane: And where they basically are recent immigrants and my right?

Big Al: You know like I just mentioned. They were some of the earliest immigrants they were descendants of the early immigrants. I think the western Anglos really are, I really do.

Shane: And you shot down...

Big Al: Well, our outfit, I got one plane but our battalion or regiment whatever you call it, we got seven planes.

Shane so you basically got those fighters down…

Big Al: Well, we call them zeros. They were one engine. They were very low wing. And very fast.

Shane: One pilot.

Big Al: One pilot. Very maneuverable. Very, very, very new maneuverable.

Shane: and our planes basically are sitting there bombed.

Big Al: They were done. They were finished.

Shane: Nothing got off the ground.

Big Al: Oh yes! I just think something like fourteen or fifteen P fighters got off the ground. But no bombers. They did er… they missed one or two of the B seventeens. The next day they were flown off to the South. They flew them into Australia because we’ve lost our air cover!

We lost our air protection! From that day on we had no further air protection! Now, we were unable to go up and attack the Japanese with pursuit or...

Shane: No retaliation.

Big Al: We didn’t have anything left! We only had something like 24 to 28 airplanes left total between us and Manila!

Shane: Did you say that the pilots were in the planes?

Big Al: Some of the crew members were in the B seventeens. And some of the pilots were in the P 40s yeah. They got hit. They died right in their aircraft burned up right on the ground. Because they started this family don’t think they called us scrambling those days, I don’t know what they call them. Almost all never got off the ground! But some did

I’ll never forget seeing five or six or Seven or eight P 40s rising right above the bomb dust. They got off just before the bombs hit the runway so, we weren’t too alert, I guess, were we? No, no, no, we learned a lot about being alert.

Vigilance and warfare is very important.

That means you had to be alert as to what might happen. We weren’t very vigilant. Even though we heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor we still weren’t very vigilant! We had to get our baptism by fire. And then we were from then on. You jumped at everything that moved!

Shane: It seems like this United States was always one step behind the attacks.

Big Al: Ohh, well we were attacked! We didn’t do the attacking, see?

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Grateful

As the holiday most people love, because it just involves just family and food – no gift stressing - gathered from afar, and we approach a New Year and the first Sunday in Advent, I am again overwhelmed how grateful I am.

First, for family. Lucky to have three kids who have done everything they can to make the world better through their success. Nothing can make any parent feel better and I rejoice in them and the love of their mother.

The miracle of creation are everywhere. Again, I rejoice at the beauty God gives us from the sprouting of new life on a Douglas Fir, the flowers so incredible powerful in their color and their ability to bring joy to the eye of the beholder, to the great mountains making one feel like they live in an era of the Lord of the Rings. They cannot help but drop your jaw in awe every time you seen them. Watching them supply the blood of the earth, water, through the various streams and waterfall causes one to pause, pull over, and watch and listen to the magic. Life giving miracle water it is.

Our Lady, our Mother is some who we should talk to every day. “Mother behold your son. Son behold your mother”.

With those simple words from Our Master, we all became children of the Greatest Intercessor of all time, Our heavenly Queen and Lady. She gives me great comfort as she did my mom and dad. For this I am most grateful.

And then there is the moment when a child sees an angel…

And mostly I am grateful for first, My Master, then my beloved, then my best friend and only confident (besides my wife). She’d begun her seventy eight trip around old Sol last week, but He saw fit to end her suffering and bring her Home.

As the great prophet Daniel said…

“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.”

“Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.”

“Blessed are you on the throne of your Kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.”

“Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.”

“Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,
praiseworthy and glorious forever.”

Now, all we have to do is follow His Greatest Commands…

1. Love and honor Me your Creator

2. Love each other as I have loved you

clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.org

The

End

The Signs of the End

Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”

He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’^* Do not follow them!

When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”

Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.

Book of Luke

I lost my fear of death in an airplane in my late thirties. We’d just taken off from Dallas on our way to Detroit when I noticed the plane was not gaining much altitude. Having the experience of many many flights under my belt, over a million miles in the air at that point, I knew something was amiss. Sure enough, within a few minutes, the pilot came on.

“Folks. We have an indicator light showing something. Now it’s probably just a malfunction in the light but just to be on the safe side we are going to land in Houston and check things out. As part of our precautions in a situation like this we are going to dump the fuel and ask the flight attendants to prepare you for an emergency landing.”

Sure enough, within minutes I saw the fuel pouring out of the wings. Later, I wonder where it went as we were at a very low altitude, and I thought some of it must have fallen on houses and yards. Then the flight attendant came on, and the other staff sought to help people prepare and spread a sense of calmness.

“Ladies and gentlemen. This is just a precaution but we need to prepare for an emergency landing. I need you to get all your seats in an upright position, tray tables up, and everything stowed as secure as possible. Then when we tell you we need you all to tuck down and brace” (This is the old stick your head between your legs and kiss you know what goodbye).

I glanced at the couple to the left of me who were so intertwined in fear I could not tell if there was one person or two. I glanced to my right and saw a man gripping his seat handles so hard his knuckles were pure white.

A strange peace came over me. I knew, up until that time in my life, I had done my best. I provided for my family and then some. I was deeply entrenched in my faith already and practiced it, not just in going to church but already trying and following the teaching of my Master for well over a decade, almost two, all the time, every day. I figured if it was my time to go, I’d done the best I can to be ready.

Needless to say, the flight ended without incident except for the cheers when we were finally back on the surface of Mother Earth.

When one reads the news today you can’t help noticing the similarities between what our Master said two thousand plus years ago and what is going on today. It’s like Fatty Bolgar in the Fellowship of the ring shouting through the Shire, “Awake! Fear, Fire, Foes!”, as the black horseman pursued Frodo.

There is war of all kinds everywhere, missiles, now drones, cyber-attacks. No one is safe. Then there are the record-breaking wildfires where they never burned before consuming parts of major cities like LA and a quarter of Canada, more than the average earthquakes, volcanoes erupting, horrible super typhoons in the Pacific (thank God Florida was spared so far this year). And then there is the rampant corruption and the disregard for the rule of law.

Does make you wonder.

But I rest easy in my faith, my hope, and my ongoing effort to love Him and all He created. Aside from those created in His Image and likeness, I am blessed to live in a place that once you hit the rain forest mountains, or to the east the cascades, with of course, “The Mountain”, Rainier.

I do not worry about ‘The End’. I spend my time being ready, in thought, word and action. Surviving much more than one ‘close call’ probably helps.

And I rejoice in the glory of His creation out here in the Great Pacific Northwest where all is different and you never know as you round a corner whether there be deer, elk, a bear, or a mountain lion. Thank goodness the Grizzlies are far to the Northeast.

The mountains, the streams, the great conifers that cover the land, the hills, and the mountains up to the tree lines drop my jaw in awe every time I see them which is pretty much all the time when I go out on an errand or doctor appointment, since we at the base of Pungent Sound are surrounded.

Yes, the ‘Sound’ and the magic of the greatest sea, the Pacific. I see His touches everywhere and astounded by His acts of Creation that overwhelm my senses.

So, I do not worry so much about the end. If we witness it, we do. In the meantime, I will revel and enjoy what He gives us; others like Him, created in His Image and Likeness, or all the immense and overflowing work of his creation in the trees, the deciduous now aflame in yellows (the Aspens) and the fluorescent oranges and reds of trees loosing there leaves (mostly maples), indication the coming of winter, the white death (or in our case the rivers of rain at our elevation).

The cycles continue despite us. We learn much from His Creation and our impact on it. Less impact is good.

So…

We Love Him for all He is and does for us, endless is His mercy and grace

We love one another as He loves us, endlessly.

Clement

fishtownprductions.com…. clementcharles.substack.com

The Ultimate

Veteran

When he made the Great Leap on October 29, 1999, with three days’ notice, over one thousand people came to his celebration of life and his victory over death. They came from one side of the country to the other and Germany. The man never held a public office. At the most he made $40,000.00 in one year. He never spoke about his war experiences or his medals except when he recorded eighteen hours in an interview with a Lt. Colonel in in the Air Force who was studying for her Ph.D. Her dissertation was on why some POW’s survived while others did not. She chose my Pop, because he was from the Pacific Theater, the Defenders of Bataan and a participant in the Death March.

He lived his life for others, bringing joy and optimism to the worst of cases. He was very active in his faith as a Third Order Franciscan and spent most of his life helping and encouraging others. He was very active with the MIA group and had strong feelings about how our vets got treated when they came home from ‘Nam. I would be way less than half the man without him. My Godfather, who gave the homily at his funeral said as his closing statement, “I have never met a man more like Jesus”.

I would encourage those who have not seen the video promoting his interview to spend five minutes and listen to his voice, one of the greatest of the greatest generation.

And for those who want to know the real story of Bataan, you can read his interview in the book available on Amazon…

He was/is my greatest friend. I bet there were a more than a few other dozen or more people who would say the same thing.

I know where he is now, anything is possible.

Clement

Why Not?

Yes, been MIA for a while. My dearest and I were gifted with extended stays in the medical system. One of us survived a broken hip, so far, and the other a nasty infection. But through the grace and mercy of our dear Master and with the assistance of prayers from all over, we are on the mend. Thank you first to God and then all who interceded for us.

When in an experience like this, I am glad I was raised in the era of the importance of ‘please and thank you’. My work experience often put me in a position to compliment and encourage others who worked, not for me, but with me, even though technically I was ‘the boss’.

To this day I am amazed at how far a simple compliment goes to making the person you are thanking happy. I do it every chance I get. In the hospital I got in hundreds if not thousands and often would fall into a conversation with the person I was grateful for their help. We talked about how people just don’t perform this common human decency.

Sign of the times from the top down in our country today.

Yet, I do see signs everywhere of people going back to pick up the habit of telling others they appreciate them. After all, we are all created in His Image and Likeness, and it is incumbent on us to be like him. As our Master told us…

Be perfect, just as you heavenly Father is perfect.

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As for the ‘side effects’, it does make you feel better when you thank a person or tell them how much you are grateful for them.

The great caveat is that by operating in such a personal modus operandum, you are doing the two most important things…

1) Loving him

2) Loving all those created in His Image and Likeness

Clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.substack.com

St. Therese of Lisieux

Dear Lord, if I cannot meet the perfection of your only Son while practicing for heaven on this earthly plain, I would be pleased to achieve half the standards of St. Francis and St. Therese of the Little Flower and hope and have faith you will find it enough to take me home when the time comes. Your Love overwhelms me!

Anonymous

View of God the Father

Don’t let your view of God the Father be shaped by culture or negative examples.

So many people today—even within the Church—struggle to see God as He truly is.

For some, it’s because of wounds left by their earthly fathers. For others, it’s the culture’s distortion of fatherhood altogether. The result? A quiet but devastating lie takes hold: God is distant. He doesn’t care. I’m on my own.

Anonymous

And Yet…

"This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Second letter of Peter

In joining what is now called the Secular Order of the Franciscans with Gretchen, we have found a community of like minds, kind and compassionate people. One recent re-discovery, I’ve known it all along, is that every task, no matter how difficult can be done for the glory of God, cheerfully, even the ones you ‘don’t like’ even the painful ones causeing physical discomfort. Maybe these offer Him the most gratitude.

My parents were both ‘Third Order’ Franciscans, as the Secular Order was called back then. Both my Dad’s brothers were Franciscan Priests, so I guess I am a cradle to grave Irish Franciscan Catholic.

My parents about a month before my Dad made the Great Leap. He was already becoming translucent.

I don’t want it any other way. While back in Michigan, I hooked up with Mary and began my discernment with the Discalced Carmelites. I find awesome similarities between St. Francis and St. Therese and the Secular order of the Franciscans.

In the chaos of the ‘new world’, dominated by people who’ve been led astray…. We pray.

Often, it’s been said the most powerful weapon in the world is prayer.

I shoot for a daylong conversation with my Lord, asking Him to take my tribulations, my refinement by fire, the world’s vast problems into His loving hands. Even though I don’t see or hear the answers to many prayers, I know they are heard by Him…

And answered though I may not understand the remedy He offers. To stay faithful, to hope, to believe and most of all to love, I do not stop. After all, said many times…

1. Love God with everything you have.

2. Love your neighbor, all humans, even strangers.

Perhaps the strangers need it most. Pray for them! Let us all be lights shining in the darkness.

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Clement

clementcharles.substack.com… fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.org

The smoke cloud rising over Hiroshima, Japan. The city of Hiroshima was the target of the world's first atomic bomb attack at 8:16 a.m. on August 6, 1945.

This photograph was taken about three hours after the bombing.

Management

By Fear and Intimidation and August 6, 1945

Traveling around Old Sol for over seven decades, I’ve witnessed a lot. My first phone was on the wall and had a cord with a dial instead of buttons. My career in sales, executive management began in the last ten years of the ‘Mad Men’ era. I had a boss, though really my boss’s boss, but he seemed keen to keep an interest in me, was a very Irish O’Malley from Chicago. He saw to my earlier promotions.

The ‘Don’, loved to take us out drinking, often until 2:00 AM plus. He would discreetly take notes on napkins on what we said in an inebriated state, then hold us to the fire the next day based on his written evidence. I always made it a point to go home to Ann Arbor (a thirty plus minute drive), get an hour rest, shower and be back at the plant around six in the morning. I had to prove I could outwork him.

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He was always there, standing, surveying his domain and when he saw me, he would often say, “You look like hell.”

I remember one time being chastised by him for not spending more alcohol on my customers, even threatening me.

Don loved to instill fear in his subordinates. Being of farm stock and stubborn I resisted often, getting into some extreme shouting matches when I was plucked from under him and assigned a new leader. I still had to work with him, his region bordering mine and common customers between us. But I no longer had to cower under the fear he installed in subordinates, as his method over control ‘over the masses’.

He must have flipped out when I started promoting women from customer service to sales, including one who did not have an undergraduate degree. That was a big no in the world of ‘Mad Men’. Then, she not only became the most successful salesperson, exceeding my own records as I handed my accounts over to her, I was able to get her college degree paid for by the company. At that time it was the world’s largest paper company and one who owned more land in the United States of America than anyone but the Catholic Church.

My reasoning was simple. Women worked harder than men because they had to prove more. And ‘mine’ were smart on top of it. I would not call myself a ‘feminist’. I simply picked, in the words of Steve Jobs, ‘A’ people. They could be of any gender or race. I just wanted to take the best and encourage them to do better.

The current Administration of the ‘Home of the Brave’ is a classic example of Don with one exception. Don did tell you the truth even though he was often harsh. Today’s ‘Administration’ just lies, pathologically in many cases, destroying truth. It has come to the point you cannot believe what you read in the news (unless you are in the science section).

It’s a classic example of management by fear and intimidation. So, we’ve gone back at least fifty years or more.

Then, starting with January 6, 2016, the ‘state of anarchy began’, mostly propelled by one person, a Commander in Chief. This was my father’s greatest fear - we would dissolve into a state of anarchy. He says so in his book, Because of Love: A True Story of the Defenders of Bataan, because the greatest generation is no more, only its sons and daughters and many of their children now preparing to shed more blood in countries around the world on the orders illegal or not of their ‘commander in chief’.

In the ‘Land of the Free and Brave’, every day we see more examples of anarchy. Politicians completely ignore the rule of law and getting away with it daily. Deportations of innocent people along with horrid treatment. Every day you read about mass killings, some motivated by personal hatred of someone they know and others by radical idealist who believe killing mass amounts of people pleases their god.

It is a depressing situation.

Now we have the major ‘powers’ threatening each other with nuclear war. NBC had an excellent article on the anniversary of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945.

An excerpt from it…

Sasaki’s is not the only family that has avoided talking about that day. More than 70% of the respondents in the Kyodo poll said they had never spoken about their experiences.

Even so, some feel it is their duty to speak up.

“As long as I live, I want to continue telling,” Yahata said. “I’m a survivor.”

NBC News

The full article is at https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/80-years-later-hiroshima-bombing-survivors-warn-new-nuclear-warfare-rcna220177

My father was a POW of the Japanese for three and a half years. He called it being a ‘guest of the emperor’. He weighed one hundred and eighty pounds when he left for the Philippines in September of 1945, ordered illegally by Roosevelt, with no congressional approval until December.

He left his last prison camp, Roshu Roki, twenty-five miles from Hiroshima, weighing ninety pounds. After surviving starvation, diphtheria, beri beri, torture and a host of other tropical diseases, the fallout from that bomb followed his health the rest of his life. And it apparently also impacted my only sister and sibling and me, who both encountered a mass of health problems to the point where I am considered a medical anomaly. All my physicians wonder why I am still alive after thyroid cancer, prostrate, and seventeen bouts with melanoma along with Parkinson’s and a myriad of blood disorders.

The ripple effects.

I do not have an answer to any of this other than I am sure by the grace of God and His Divine mercy I am still able to do some work for him. Nothing I write will impact enough people, but I am in firm belief that if you can get one person to think differently, preferably about those in greater need, you accomplished His Will.

Also, I write to not forget the horrors of the past as we repeat them.

So that by miracles, we don’t.

My hope, my belief, my faith and my love tell me that if we would just…

1. Love our Lord and be grateful to Him all the time.

2. Love every person and be grateful God brought them into our lives – even if some are a bit cranky!

Clement

This angel was a gift from dear friends to my mother when Big Al, Pop, made the Great Leap. He was a heavily decorated vet from the Pacific Theater in WWII. Survived three and a half years in Japanese Prison camps in the Philippines and Japan, the Death March, the Hell Ships, Diphtheria, and life long health issues due to Beri Beri and being in a prison camp twenty-five miles from Hiroshima, when that bomb went off. See his story at the end of this missive. He was a man of great peace!

Are we still out there America? Where are we?

Born on July 22, 1849 in New York City to a wealthy sugar refining family of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent whose roots extended to the very early days of New York City as a British colonial city, Emma Lazarus was the poet who wrote "The New Colossus." Aside from writing, Lazarus was also involved in charitable work for refugees. At Ward's Island, she worked as an aide for Jewish immigrants who had been detained by Castle Garden immigration officials. She was deeply moved by the plight of the Russian Jews she met there and these experiences influenced her writing. Lazarus' poem was mounted on a plaque of Miss Liberty, though it is not actually inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. The only Statue of Liberty inscription can be found on the tablet in her left hand, which says JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776), the day the United States adopted the Declaration of Independence.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

My country, ’tis of Thee Lyrics
by Samuel F. Smith – 1832

My country, ’tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet Freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing,
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by thy might
Great God, our King.
Our glorious Land to-day,
‘Neath Education’s sway,
Soars upward still.
Its hills of learning fair,
Whose bounties all may share,
behold them everywhere
On vale and hill!
Thy safeguard, Liberty,
The school shall ever be,
Our Nation’s pride!
No tyrant hand shall smite,
While with encircling might
All here are taught the Right
With Truth allied.
Beneath Heaven’s gracious will
The stars of progress still
Our course do sway;
In unity sublime
To broader heights we climb,
Triumphant over Time,
God speeds our way!
Grand birthright of our sires,
Our altars and our fires
Keep we still pure!
Our starry flag unfurled,
The hope of all the world,
In peace and light impearled,
God hold secure!

Where are we America?

Gratitude

A week ago I saw a clip from some news channel (NBC?) where a reporter had a chance encounter with a woman of 102 at an airport. She was so spry and delightful he arranged to come to her home (independent unassisted) and conduct a full scale interview. Overwhelmed by the woman’s light step, always smiling and completely intact cognitively; he asked her…

What is your secrete?

She said it is simply. “Attitude and Gratitude.”

Clearly, she lived this way as she took him on a walking tour. It appeared she was the ‘belle of the ball’.

Back when I was able to work, three weeks out of the month I’d leave around 5:00 AM for the airport for two-to-three-day business trips. I always wrote my kids a note. I finished every note with these rules…

· Love God and every other single human

· Obey your mom

· Think Positive

· Be careful

Think positive…

My Dad is the most optimistic person I ever met. Being a POW In WWII in the Philippines and Japan including the infamous Camp O’Donnel where four hundred American soldiers and one thousand Philippines died a day, on the death March, on the hell ships and three and a half years as a ‘guest of the emperor’, as he put it, I knew him to be always cheerful, happy with the ability to motivate others to do the same. This despite massive health problems from the war almost to the day he made the Greatest Leap, at seventy-nine, including four heart attacks. You never knew he had any health problems.

I must have inherited his DNA.

Despite being disabled at forty-five (Parkinson’s), and too many other issues to count (like seventeen bouts with melanoma), thyroid cancer and finally now prostrate along with the financial hardship ‘managing’ my body, I still dream, I hope, I believe, and I love. I pray a lot, mostly for others.

I am grateful for everything, even his flowers wild, more exquisite than anything.

Thérèse of Lisieux, along with St. Francis are my favorite saints. The writings of St. Therese give me the strength and knowledge to live life to the fullest in love, despite constant pain and suffering. No wonder they made her a Doctor of the Church even though her constant infirmities led to her death at twenty-four. With gratitude brings love. So…

· Love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind

· Love your neighbor as yourself

I am grateful for all the glorious wonders of creation whether it be the wild flowers whose finery exceeds anything even when it sprouts in the most unlikely places.

Clement

Why Not?

Growing up in an Irish Catholic Franciscan I was taught the value of saying ‘thank you’ every time someone did something for you, even if it was mom putting a diner plate in front of me.

It stuck.

Part of my nature and DNA now, I thank everyone who helps me, be it the folks working service in grocery stores and gas stations, or the numerous doctors I get to visit and their assistants. I suppose some people go out of their way to help me because I am visibly handicap. I do not perceive myself this way. I consider it a gift for which to be thankful. This particular neurological disorder has taught me much, patience being the biggest, but many other things like how I look, feel and help others I run into who are worse off than me.

You know what stuns me? It might be somebody I help, but it’s mostly the people behind the counters at the store. When I say, “Thanks for your help!” or “Thank you for helping me”, they appear stunned that someone said, ‘thank you’! And it always brings a surprised smile to their face.

When I wake up every morning, I start the day off by thanking our Creator in all His Magnificent Triune-ness. I thank Him for my kids, beloved and all my family and friends and their health.

I thank Him for my life and pray I follow His will during the day and not mine. I thank Him for all he has given me, the good to enjoy and the bad to learn from.

It fills me with wonder is when I thank Him for His Creation that surrounds us.

So, what is the big deal about saying thank you? It’s gratitude folks. You are demonstrating gratitude for those you interact with and best of all it shows gratitude for Him.

When we show gratitude, we are following both of the most important rules…

· Love our Creator with all our mind, heart and soul

· Love each other, all created in His Image and Likeness, every single person.

Clement

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Pictures compliments of Clement Charles LLC

Whenever I see cloud formations like this I always think of our Master’s return because of the rays and spender.

Ascension

Looking Up and Looking Down

While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

This Sunday, at Mass, our dear priest said this about this passage…

“As the apostles were looking up and the two men dressed in white appeared to them and said, ‘why are you standing there looking at the sky?’ I think the priest said the two men in white were really saying, ‘Okay, you’ve seen Him, go home. Now is the time to stop looking up and start looking down and get to work!’ With the coming of the Advocate, now is the time to do as our Master commanded and to take up continuing His job.”

No wonder the apostles left the mountain with Joy, real true divine Joy.

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We see evidence of this in Acts, where the apostles continued to be the vessels for His miracles, curing many and raising people from the dead. We’ve also seen this in a slew of miracles since, some recorded by stories of the saints throughout history, others in our personal lives.

A dear and close friend survived six weeks in ICU, and we were planning his funeral when suddenly he made an unexpected comeback. Hearing his voice a week back made my day, or month, or year. I read stories of such miracles daily, though one must sort through all the awful news assaulting our senses and basic human decency in ever increasing insidiousness.

Many of us wonder what happened to those miracle ‘times’ of the apostles, or those attributed to saints of all kinds and creed in the two plus millennia since. Then there are the miracles attributed to Mary and her intercession as well as her appearances to those still here

We need not wonder.

We need to know that miracles do exist, and we are part of that effort.

It is now up to us to expedite the miracles. Doesn’t matter if it’s doing something or praying – the most powerful weapon. Too many times, we do not notice.

Too often we do not see the miracles surrounding us, whether they be in the form of those of us created in His image and Likeness experience, or the massive plethora of life on Terra, our home for the moment where the miracles of His creation abound, seen around every corner.

One of my favorites is when the full moon or the sun is at a lower angle that it spreads a pathway of a sea of stars on the water. They look to be a pathway to heaven.

The shame is so many of us miss them.

So, what to do? How do we get started?

We follow the two most important commandments he left us with.

Love Him and love every other single human being created in His Image and Likeness.

Pretty simple if you pray then act on it – even if it more prayer!!

Clement

Memorial, Day…

My father, a WWII POW in the Pacific Theater, was a ‘mountain of a man’, as described by my eldest at my only sibling and sister’s funeral a year ago last April. He was a staunch advocate of the MIA/POW effort. The description of ‘mountain of a man’, was earned not because he was famous, or rich, or financially successful. It was because he was a gentle pacifist, whose main goal in life was to help other people, often by just making them laugh embracing his theory ‘if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit’. He lead by a cheerful example seen by me only in him, though I do try and emulate him by bringing laughter and hopefully some joy to everyone I encounter as I run daily errands and especially my beloved wife.

He never talked about the war or his experiences except in his interview with Lt. Colonel Carol Eric or ‘Shane’. She recorded him for eighteen hours as part of her research studying for her Ph.D. specializing in why some POWs survived while others did not. Mary, who transcribed the interview into a book mention a few paragraphs below (Faithful: Because of of Love a True Story of the Defenders of Bataan) had this to say. Our sole purpose in publishing the book was for people of today to hear his voice’.

Today, I think again about what he and his fellow soldiers survived (or did not) at the hands of the Japanese. Four in Ten did not come back from the Pacific Theater’s defense of Bataan and ensuing prison camps versus the European Theater where nine out of ten POWs survived.

The soldier’s of Bataan had a famous saying, “No Papa, no Momma, no Uncle Sam” as they were abandoned by the US Government after months of lies about ‘help’ coming’

In the book Faithful: Because of Love a True Story of the Defenders of Bataan, he notes something in that interview recorded in May-October 1981 that stands out.

He said, “I don’t think there was ever an assembly of women and men of such size and dedication to eradicating evil as there was during WWII. And I do not think there will ever be again.” Though I hold out hope we will find common cause, his eerily accurate predictions of a great nation falling into anarchy seem to be increasingly the case.

He also talked about China and Russia and their true intent, expand and conquer. Clearly still true forty-four years after he said it.

Pop, or Big Al, was a man of deeply rooted faith. It began with his mother, Kati, a devout Irish Catholic and her ancestors, continued through his experience as a POW, or a ‘guest of the Emperor’ as he put it, for three and a half years in the Philippines and Japan. He participated in the Death March, the horrors of Camp O’Donnel where four hundred US soldiers succumbed to disease and starvation daily. He was on the ‘hell ships’ and survived diphtheria (through a miracle) and suffered the consequences of Beri Beri for the rest of his life. He was twenty-five miles from Hiroshima when the bomb went off in a prison camp called Roshu Roki.

He married a devout Irish Catholic woman of equally or greater deeply rooted faith, Patti. For fifty-two years they set an example like no other until he made the Great Leap on October 31, 1999. Over one thousand people from across the United States and Germany attended his funeral on three days’ notice. He never was famous or held public office or made more than forty thousand dollar a year.

In the Sermon given by my Godfather, a diocesan priest and my mother’s only living relative, Fr. Robert Shields, or Fr. Bob, finished with, “Al was my best friend. I never met a man more like Jesus.”

Every year he would come up with a slogan for the new year. The one that stuck with me was ‘tolerance.’

He lived by two rules. Love God and love everyone created in His Image in Likeness.

We’ve had to move three times in the last two years. I know, buried deep inside a packed garage, is our flag. Currently disabled, searching for it by moving stacks of bins and containers is not an option. So, at 9:00 AM, I headed to Ace Hardware and got a new flag to put up. It now flutters gently in the breeze.

Clement

From Wikipedia… Official recognition as a holiday spread among the states, beginning with New York in 1873.^[8] By 1890, every Union state had adopted it. The world wars turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1968, Congress changed its observance to the last Monday in May, and in 1971 standardized its name as "Memorial Day.” Two other days celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: Armed Forces Day, which is earlier in May, an unofficial U.S. holiday for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day on November 11, which honors all those who have served in the United States Armed Forces

By the Glory and Mercy of Adonia

In and Out Of the Darkness

Throughout the world people are suffering in numbers by the billions. I find it very true that you can always find someone in worse shape than yourself, no matter how life-threatening the issue one deals with for even a moment, a week, a month, a year or decades (and I do speak with a little experience) unless you live in places like the Sudan, or Gaza, or Ukraine. Many situations there can’t miss being the worst, exclusively due to the cruelty and ruthlessness of men beginning with their leaders. Horror beyond imagination. Couldn’t make a movie that would paint even one frame of those lives.

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It has been a winter I thought I would not make it due to health, falling into even the deepest depths of despair, no hope other than just hanging onto the concept of hope, just darkness. I was in and out darkness so many times. But every day I read our faith’s cycle of readings from ‘The Book’, ‘The Biblous’, The Bible, The Torah. And despite the deepest of the deep darkness, our Master or Paul would exhort me like Paul’s message this morning.

They strengthened the spirits of the disciples
and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying,
"It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the Kingdom of God."

Recently and suddenly a friend of fifty years, part of a pack five or six guys who’ve stuck together like glue for five decades and their spouses, if still living, three have died, fell so ill we were planning his funeral. No one ever wwill conceive how close this groups is.

Today I heard his voice for the first time in over two months. We usually talked every three to four weeks for decades. And I could not believe the miracle. It was a three-way conversation with one of the other of our pack of five or six, his caregiver due to proximity, and our near-death friend sounded exactly like the ‘old’ Walter’.

Folks, it not only made my day, or week or month or year, or decade but perhaps my life. I’d have sacrificed anything for a miracle for him including winning the biggest lottery or more.

I not a huge fan of praying for myself. Pleading maybe, but my prayers go for others. I have a lot of people praying for me anyway and I thank our dear Master for them daily. As I’ve mentioned before, I picture prayers as little Japanese like lanterns, floating up into the heavens, hundreds if not thousands at a time captured by our Great Mother and His saints and angels then all presented before the throne of the Lamb. When you deal with the type of discomfort, caused by a disease or disorder that interrupts sleep, nights can be very lonely and scary. But if you do nothing but pray, two things will happen, either you will fall asleep or you will pray for hours. You forget your own pain. What can be more powerful?

My favorite Saint (other than Francis) is St. Theresa of Lisieux, known as ‘the Little Flower of Jesus’. Her dissertations on prayer and love of our Lord caused me to join the Order of the Discalced Carmelites. When I am healthy enough it is the first thing I will do, ‘re-up’.

Compliments of Pintrist

This is the greatest example of the two commands our Master left us with when we pray…

Love Me, Adonia, in His Magnificent Trilogy and love every other person created in His image and Likeness.

Be not just the servant of the Master, but also spend every waking moment being like Him, will all your heart and soul.

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Clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.substack.com…clementcharles.org

The sunrise compliments of Clement Charles LLC

Example

Francis

Once I was a CEO, of several companies over the course of my career. Companies in trouble hired me to fix their problems. Eventually I went out on my own, becoming an independent rep scouring North American, looking for cash. The Mexican Company I represented were the finest bunch of people I’ve ever met. We had our problems with quality, not in their literally art worthy printing (like for Hartz Mountain USA), but bad bag making was an issue. So, we shipped that to a local contractor in the US who could warehouse and sort out mistakes.

For the bulk of my career, I helped companies become better. I did this by finding out what we did best and then relentlessly pursued this on the road with my salespeople. When in the office (I spent half the time on the road – I had to see and listen to the customer) I’d get there before anyone else, including the president, who showed at five AM on the last one. I’d also be the last to leave.

My modus operandi was to out work everyone and spend as much time as I could with them during the jobs listening to what they had to go through. Then I became their cheerleader. Some were tougher than others, but they all gave me a grand send off when I went on the next mission. I accomplished my ‘turn-a-rounds’ not by cutting cost but by increasing sales. I learned on the first one my role was:

Be the servant always. Never become a ‘master’.

People never worked for me. They worked with me. I may have been in charge, but they were the engine, the front lines in a very completive world. I had to lay off only one soul through four companies and they were thrilled. That company in Dallas was a poor fit for them.

All my life I have led as a servant. Whether it was for those I worked with or my family, I lived and liked to serve and make others happy. I think a lot (or most) of this has to do with my Irish Franciscan Catholic parents and heritage. Two uncles who were Franciscan priests helped a lot. Nothing better than a Franciscan.

So, when this ‘new’ pope came on board twelve years ago, I quickly became enamored! Here was a fellow ‘conspirator’! I found myself with a ‘like’ mind, as a friend and Papa. Prioritize the poor and marginalized, snuff out corruption.

His death gave me cause for joy! (After the sadness.) Now I know I can talk with Him daily, for surely this servant of the poor is now Home with Him. And as C.S. Lewis said, “Heaven is all around us. We just can’t see it yet.”

What and incredible example for humanity he was. Perhaps one of the best in centuries. So, I will remember him in brotherly and fatherly love. I pray his works continue for one reason…

That we love Him and every other single human being.

clement

fishtownproductions.com… clementcharles.org… clementcharles.substack.com

The Sunset Galway Bay, compliments of Clement Charles LLC