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Month: August 2006

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Perspective,

Shopping and dinning, oh the pain —“ Part II

Red Lobster

My family and I went to Red Lobster after church on Sunday.

Everyone knows how these restaurants do their little shtick when someone is having a special occasion (birthday, anniversary, etc.).

My wife’s birthday is coming up so I ask the waitress if they can bring a desert and do the song thing.

Sorry, we don’t do that anymore.
Huh?
We don’t do that, too many people complained.
Huh?
People wrote to corporate telling them that they come here to eat and not be bothered into celebrating anything. We were told to stop.

I wonder what kind of response corporate received. Did the Jehovah’s Witnesses get offended because people were celebrating an occasion and conduct a write-in campaign?

Has some vast majority of our nation decided to take offense at others celebrating an occasion publicly? Is our new motto F-you and your silly celebration too!!!?

Aren’t these types of restaurants supposed to be less formal, easier going, laid back, and family oriented? Aren’t restaurant experiences supposed to be social?

I guess not. I didn’t realize that I was eating at Chez Langoustine Rouge…

Perspective

Shopping and dinning, oh the pain —“ Part I

Two recent experiences in the realm of spending my money have left me flabbergasted.

Home Depot

We put a new deck on our house this summer. If anyone in New York’s Capital Region is looking for a very skilled and dedicated contractor —“ let me know. This guy did a great job.

Now that we have an aircraft carrier size deck we need deck furniture.

My wife and I were in no hurry to buy it. We wanted to shop around and find the right thing.

We found a very nice set on the Home Depot website. I put the items in my wishlist to save them for later.

I had some reward point gift certificates coming. I chose Home Depot as my reward so I could offset the cost of the furniture ($500 worth of offset —“ cool).

I received the certificates and guess what —“ Home Depot doesn’t accept its own gift certificates on its website (poor IT department I guess —“ can’t integrate the gift certificate database with the website —“ ooops).

So on Friday, July 28th I ventured to the nearby Home Depot (Washington Ave., Albany).

We’ve always had a lot of luck in the store. The associates were helpful and knowledgeable. We purchased a lot of major stuff for our house there.

I shopped around some and looked at what was in stock. They didn’t have the patio set we wanted but I did find a Home Depot Direct display. Big sign, catalogue, and some cards —“ fill out the card noting the SKU and description marking where you want the stuff sent, and take it to the service counter to order it. This is going to be easy.

I went up to the counter and asked a few questions.

Can your order this?
Sure, I just have to call Home Depot Direct to make sure the stuff is still in stock.
Can I pay with a Home Depot gift certificate?
Sure, no problem.

So I went home and checked the SKU’s against the website. It’s what we wanted. After devotions at church that night I stop by Home Depot to place the order (I’m wearing my black clerical clothes). Patrice is at the counter.

Hi, can you order this for me?
I don’t know what this is. I’ve never seen it.
It’s an order form for patio furniture.
No, can’t, we don’t sell patio furniture anymore —“ it’s out of season.
Ummmm, but your sign and the man I spoke to this afternoon, and ummmm.

Now note, Patrice at the service counter was the only staff member there. She was making calls to let people know that their special orders were in.

The conversation continues:

This afternoon I spoke with the service rep and he said it would be no problem.
The sign is wrong. We don’t sell patio furniture now.
It’s July. Ummmm, he said if you call Home Depot direct and the stuff was available it could be ordered.
Do you want to talk to a manager?
Sure.

Bill the manager shows up. I take him to the catalogue and sign, show him the cards, etc. He gets a phone number out of the catalogue and goes back to the counter. He tells another associate to call Home Depot Direct.

The associate calls and low-and-behold they can order everything.

The service rep is not happy. Patrice has calls to make, stuff to do.

I’ve been there a half-hour already. A line is forming behind me with all sorts of special requests and cart loads of returns. Bill the manager is standing by the door in plain sight with four or five other associates. They’re enjoying the evening.

Patrice enters all the info in her computer. As she’s doing this she explains that she works one evening a week. She’s not used to this stuff.

Patrice places the order and gives me all the papers telling me to sign an agreement. I look it over first.

Ummmm, where is the delivery information?
It will be delivered here; you have to pick it up.
Ummmm, I checked the box on the form that said I want it delivered to my house.
We can’t do that. Nothing can be delivered to your house.
But the form says…
I don’t know.
Well, I can’t pick it up. I have no means to do so and I can’t handle it physically anyway.
We can’t deliver.
Please back out the order and give me a refund, I don’t want it if it can’t be delivered.
Let me see.

She spends a long while trying to add delivery to the order. She cannot figure out how to do it nor how much to charge for delivery.

The line is about twelve people long. They are getting ticked (and slightly amused in a fatalistic sense) and we all watch the manager and the other associates milling about.

Patrice has been pounding the computer now trying to enter delivery.

I don’t know what to charge you.

Another associate wanders by. He volunteers to get involved.

We should check the website.
OK
The website says shipping is free
Huh!?!
It’s free

Patrice tells me that she can’t enter any shipping info in the current order.

Why don’t you just order on-line?
Because the on-line store doesn’t take gift certificates.
That’s why you had to come here?
Yep.

The manager and other associates are still standing by the door. They were watching a train wreck as it occurs.

An associate wanders over attempting to help the other customers in line. It’s been an hour and fifteen minutes. Patrice scolds him, telling him that he doesn’t have the appropriate customer service access levels. I bet the manager could have helped…

Patrice proceeds to cancel my order and re-enter the order. She’s now done the same keystrokes three times. The line is long and a woman begins arguing with Patrice about customer service and God.

Well then God bless you
I already have His blessing
No, God bless you, etc., etc.

I almost fell over.

I look it all over. Everything looks fine. It says that the order will be delivered on Friday, August 4th. After an hour and a half I leave the store.

Yesterday was August 7th. I called last night to see where my furniture was. They say I’ll have it today. We’ll see.

I have experienced really lousy service before. I’ve experienced people who do not know anything about what they are selling. I’ve experienced bad manners and rudeness. On July 28th I experienced it all and more, and the experience was brought to me by the shareholder-associates of Home Depot.

If I were a Home Depot executive I’d cash in those stock options and convert them to cash ASAP.

PNCC

E-bay seller takes shot at PNCC

Adam, a frequent reader and commenter here, notes that an eBay seller placed a copy of the PNCC Missal for sale on eBay. In the sales write-up the seller takes a shot at the PNCC.

At first I wondered if it was a copy of the brand new Missal. If it is, it is stolen.

Regardless, I wondered, who is this person and why are they taking a shot? Are they ex-PNCC members or even clergy? So I did a little Googling and look what I found:

The seller appears to be an ‘Old Catholic’, probably upset with the PNCC for dumping Utrecht. As you know ‘Old Catholic’ can mean anything in the United States, and there are no official ‘Old Catholics’ in union with Utrecht in the United States.

The seller, known as Mustard Tree Gifts also has a stand alone website called Mustard Tree Books. The website has the following description tag:

Mustard Tree Books is a non-profit Old Catholic missionary apostolate specializing in the publishing and distribution of Old Catholic, Traditional Catholic and Western Rite Orthodox books designed to aid the faithful in their efforts to study and preserve traditional liturgical publications.

The seller seems to put a lot of R.C. religious ephemera up for sale (holy cards, etc.) as well.

I looked further and it appears that the business address is shared with a Brianna Martin who runs a firm called Web Architect. It notes that she designed the Mustard Tree Books website.

The Boston Globe has an article from 2003 about Ms. Martin and her husband Dominic Martin (AKA Dominic or Tod Biltcliffe), an alleged —Old Catholic— bishop!!! You’ve got to read it to believe it: Couple facing extortion charges

Springfield couple were arrested and charged yesterday with extorting money from a Catholic priest whom they had allegedly blackmailed with ”embarrassing” sexual information, Lowell police said.

Dominic Martin, 32, and Brianna Martin, 39, were arraigned in Lowell District Court on one count each of extortion and larceny.

The Rev. Joseph A. Ruggeri, pastor of St. Margaret’s Church in Lowell, had been communicating for three weeks with a person through e-mail, instant messaging, and the phone, the Middlesex district attorney’s office said. On Jan. 11, Ruggeri’s correspondent told him he had kept copies of the conversations, which had become sexual, and demanded $3,000 to keep them secret.

Ruggeri paid a ”courier” $1,500 inside the entrance to the 99 Restaurant at the corner of Chelmsford Street and Industrial Avenue in Lowell, authorities said. Last Sunday, Ruggeri, facing a threat that the conversations would be revealed to parishioners at this Sunday’s Mass unless he paid another $1,500, contacted police, Lowell Police Superintendent Edward F. Davis III said. Police then set up a sting on Thursday.

The priest told ”Jim,” the name used by the alleged extortionist, that he would leave $800 in a plain white envelope on top of a newspaper box outside the 99 Restaurant. Instead, police stuffed the envelope with one $100 bill and a wad of paper. When Ruggeri left the rectory on Thursday for the 1-mile drive to the restaurant, he was secretly followed by the couple – who were in turn followed by police. The police also had staked out the restaurant.

”It was like a movie,” said Davis.

Ruggeri dropped off the money and walked away. A minute later, Brianna Martin allegedly walked up, grabbed the envelope, and hopped into a red 2001 Grand Am, driven by her husband, Davis said. They were arrested a short distance away.

The sexual information used to blackmail the priest did not involve children, Davis said. Police, seeking evidence, took computers from Ruggeri and the couple. Ruggeri also turned over telephone messages on his answering machine allegedly left by the Springfield pair.

The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, an archdiocesan spokesman, said the church is investigating where Ruggeri’s $1,500 came from, but he remains pastor of the church where he has served since 1991. Ruggeri, 68, who could not be reached for comment, is taking time off.

The Martins pleaded not guilty, and bail was set at $2,500. Dominic Martin was freed after posting the bail. State officials could not determine whether Brianna Martin had made bail last night. A pretrial conference was set for Feb. 21.

Dominic Martin is listed on a website of independent churches as a bishop in the Traditional Western Rite Archdiocese, an independent Christian denomination, and pastor of Holy Family Old Catholic Mission in Springfield. He also lists his birth name as Tod F.X. Biltcliffe, but legally changed it about two years ago, said his attorney, Lynda Dantas. She said the couple are married.

Yep, and check out the ‘church’ website, two archbishops and a bishop, plus all the other vagante weirdness (kind of a cross between the current Episcopal Church, non-canonical Orthodoxy, and vagante Old Catholicism).

By the way, do a search on Mr. Martin’s former name, Dominic or Tod Biltcliffe. You’ll be well… whatever.

So to answer Adam’s original question – nope, not members of the PNCC.

Homilies,

Solemnity of the Transfiguration

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Imagine the astonishment Peter, James, and John experienced on that mountain.

It was incredible. It was the sort of thing many religious people hope for —“ a direct one-on-one experience with God’s power and majesty.

I’m sure the apostles were familiar with the words from Daniel. Words from the visions Daniel received:

Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
His clothing was bright as snow,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
his throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.
The court was convened and the books were opened.

And there they were, confronted by all that power and glory —“ the words brought home in their experience of the Godhead.

As they came down from the mountain, in the same way Moses came down off the mountain in days of old, bearing the Law written by the hand of God, they debated what it all meant. Maybe they were still in shock. It hadn’t hit home yet —“ and it wouldn’t until Peter, James, and John, along with the others, saw the resurrected Christ.

They would need hindsight to understand their experience clearly.

My brothers and sisters,

Peter, James, and John play an important role. In Jewish Law, the testimony of witnesses was the sole determinant of truth. We see that over and over.

From Deuteronomy:

On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

and

One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

In Matthew, Jesus speaks about how we are correct our neighbor:

But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 13, we read the story of Susanna the eminently beautiful wife of the wealthy and influential Joakim. Her beauty inspires lust in two Jewish elders who often come to Joakim’s house.

The elders plot to find her alone and entice her to sleep with them; should she refuse, they will tell everyone that they caught her committing adultery with a younger man. Their testimony would be believed because it would be on the authority of two witnesses.

Despite the threat, Susanna refuses their advances. We hear:

“I am completely trapped,” Susanna groaned. “If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power. Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord.”

So the elders accuse her. The story proceeds:

In the midst of the people the two elders rose up and laid their hands on her head.

They laid their hands on her to accuse her – not to bless her.

After a brief trial she is found guilty and sentenced to death. On the way to her execution, Daniel appears. The story continues:

As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud: “I will have no part in the death of this woman.”
All the people turned and asked him, “What is this you are saying?”
He stood in their midst and continued, “Are you such fools, O Israelites! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence?
Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her.”

Daniel examines the elders. Daniel shows that they are lying by demanding that they, while being kept separate, name the tree under which they allegedly found Susanna and the young man. Their testimony did not agree, and Susanna was exonerated and the two elders were executed in her place.

Witness meant an absolute fidelity to the truth. Life was decided by witnesses. False witness brought death.

Peter’s letter, when taken in combination with the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles of the other apostles, and along with the first hand oral testimony relayed by the apostles to the Fathers, and by the Fathers to us, gives us the witness we need. Peter says:

We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honor and glory from God the Father
when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,
—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.

In hindsight the apostles understood the significance of what they experienced. They not only understood the significance, but they proclaimed its meaning.

They did not hide their knowledge under a bushel basket; they set their witness like a light on a lamp stand, a light for all to see. Peter says:

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

Let me make it clear. The testimony we have received and that we pass on to you has been handed down to us by the apostles and God’s Holy Church. We are the keepers of this testimony. We witness to the reality and truth of Jesus Christ.

In this age of lies, lying is cheep and easy. No one seems to mind or care. The witness we bear is the truth, and the death of our souls is the price for not witnessing the truth.

Take up this witness and proclaim what you know. Listen to this witness and be attentive to it.

You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place

Saints and Martyrs

August 5 – Bl. John Grot (Błg. Jan Grot)

O Boże, weźmij w posiadanie zupełne serce moje. Całe Ci go oddaję, posiądź go całe, przywiąż je do siebie, aby Ciebie samego jedynie kochało. Miłość i łaskę Twą daj mi Panie, a wtedy dosyć będę bogatym; to jest spraw, abym Cię kochał i od Ciebie był kochanym a wtedy niczego mi nie potrzeba do szczęścia. Amen.

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