A few years ago, I gave a talk at a conference in Napa Valley for a men’s group. It was a fine event with great guys. Two other priests spoke, Fr. David Jenuwine and Fr. Edward Looney. I was so grateful that I was the last speaker and not the first so that the poster did not read “Zuhlsdorf Jenuwine Looney”. It was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The next day a fire swept through Napa. That night, in the hotel near the airport for my next day flight, it hit me. A severe, nearly paralyzing, burning stabbing pain seized my left shoulder and stabs up the side of my skull. It was so bad that all I could do was sit in a chair. Moving was agony. I had some pain killer with me and loaded it up in the morning in order to get home. I don’t know how I did it. That pain stuck with me for a long, except, it moved around. Sometimes lower in my back, sometimes sliding over to the right side. Sometimes worse, sometimes less bad, sometimes so bad I couldn’t raise the chalice at Mass and all I could do was sit in a chair. The pain left, entirely, on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary exactly one year after it started. I talked to an exorcist friend about it and we compared notes.
Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, my tech started to fight me. I had desktop problems, laptop problems, TV box problems. I was making a podcast and the software I’ve used so many times fought me. The microphone wouldn’t record above a whisper though I adjusted it way up. I worked through these things and got the recording posted. I said Mass in the afternoon, with only a minor audio glitch in the stream at the start. Supper. Then it hit me. The same massive pain over my left scapula and up the side of my skull. During the night it drifted over to the right. I reflected on Paul and the thorn in his side as I asked Mary to put her mantle over me, the angels to defend me and Christ to pour His Precious Blood upon me.
This morning I find that my refrigerator ice maker is not working and that it is not cooling below 40°F.
A connection with the podcasts, maybe? Some other resolve I made? I note that the podcasts for Lent began on Shrove Tuesday, which this year 4 March is the Feast of the Holy Face. Also, recently, with the TMSM society I’m still involved with I obtain new reliquaries and relics for the chapel where the TLM is celebrated. No good deed goes unpunished?
I don’t often get very personal in my posts. Whatever this is, I ask for your prayers. I’d really like this to stop but I’ve offered the pain for my mother’s healing.
And I still don’t understand what’s happening with my amazon affiliate accounts (US and UK). The links seem to work but I am not showing any sales in my stats. This is a deep concern.
It feels like an all out attack.
https://wdtprs.com/2025/03/daily-rome-shot-1263-so-it-begins/
Love Father Z. Will dedicate today’s rosary to him and all his holy works. His daily Lenten podcasts are excellent.
I bought a crepe pan and Candace Owen’s book “Becoming Brigette” using his portal on Amazon. Sure hope he gets the proceeds.
Crepes are a great Lenten food. Fill with plain yogurt or cottage cheese and top with fruit (fresh or jam) for a nice breakfast or herbs (fresh parsley or chives) for lunch. Fill with creamed spinach, whitefish, shrimp or salmon for a nice supper. Can be made with regular or whole wheat flour. So continental!