Mysterious Man, Mysterious Staircase

 

 

The year is 1852. The road is dusty and the journey was as rough as the dirt road they traveled on. A group of seven nuns of the Order of The Little Society of the Friends of Mary Under the Cross of Jesus traveled from Kentucky to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their Mission? To start a school for children in a remote area where the educational needs of children were not being met.

Now that the stage is set – Hello and welcome to All Things Odd and Strange! I’m Lu, your host of All Things Odd and Strange where we explore the odd in a slightly strange way.

Now that we’ve arrived in New Mexico, let our story begin. Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy was the first appointed Bishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He realized that a school would be necessary to service the educational needs of the children in the area. He was busy, at the time, building the Cathedral of Santa Fe. Since he had an architect and builders at his disposal, he thought of using them to build the chapel at the Loretto Convent.

In 1878, an unfortunate event took place. The architect died, leaving the chapel unfinished. Well, most of it was complete but there was no way to get from the main floor to the choir loft, and he left no instructions on how to build a stairway in this very tight and narrow area. You see, if they built the stairs like as is custom, they would lose about 1/3 of there pew space in an already small chapel. The sisters contacted several workmen on their situation, however, all of them said it would be impossible to construct a staircase without losing the precious space.

This situation went on for a few years. It is now 1880. By this time the sisters were out of options and began a novena to St. Joseph. A novena is a prayer said for nine days asking for the Saint (very holy person) to pray with them to Jesus. It’s like asking a friend or prayer group to pray for and with you during some difficulty. As the Jesus said Himself, “Where two or three are gathered in prayer, there I am in their midst.”

At the end of the novena, the sisters were going about their daily duties when they heard a knock on the door. One of the sisters opened it only to see standing there an older man, a donkey and a bag of woodworking tools. The man had an affable countenance and a calm demeanor. He was there to help. The sisters were overjoyed. The man had but one request, that he work undisturbed and no one should enter the chapel while he was working. The sisters agreed.

So, the work began. Day after day the man showed up like clockwork and left as quietly as he arrived. The workspace was always left tidy. The sisters didn’t speak with him other than Mother offering him some water before he went into the chapel. The sisters were not ones for small talk. Matter of fact, they didn’t even know his name and he never mentioned it. This went on for 6 months until one day, the man left without anyone noticing. The stairs were complete. The sisters inquired as to his whereabouts, even going to the lumber yard to pay for the lumber he used. The manager at the lumber yard said they had no record of purchase from such a gentleman and their inventory remained undisturbed. The carpenter and his donkey simply vanished. Even to this very day, you can ask the sisters at the Loretto Convent who was that carpenter who showed up when they needed help, and they will answer with moral certitude – St. Joseph.

 

If that were then of the story, you wouldn’t be hearing it from me. In my opinion, this is where the story starts getting interesting. You see, this was no ordinary staircase – noooo. Come to find out, the construction of this staircase leaves all carpenters and builders scratching their heads. The construction of this staircase in the form of a double helix without any center support. There are no nails or screws used, just wooden pegs and has two 360 degree turns within a rise of only 20 feet. The number of steps? Thirty-three. Same as the reported age of Jesus’ lifespan. Oh! And that’s not all. The wood it was made out of doesn’t exist. It is of the spruce family, but the species of spruce, get this,-- is unknown.

Well, my friends, I leave this story with you to further research for yourself. All I know is I find this account a bit odd and strange. How about you? Until next time, I’ll see you – on the flip side!

 

 

 

Spiritual Warfare and Feelings

  

 Everyone is familiar with the image of the pesky little demon who sits on our left shoulder and the ever vigilant angel who is forever on our right. This image is supposed to be symbolic of our constant battle between that which beckons us to choose the good and that which tempts us toward the bad. If only it were that simple.

 Sometimes, that little demon is not interested in influencing us toward the "bad" but instead inflicts on us a much more cunning move of making us feel a certain way. Not that all our less than honorable feelings are inspired by the minions of the father of lies but more often than not, it is those feelings that seem to come out of nowhere. One minute, we are peacefully going about our business, and the next moment feelings of irritation, fear, and/or anxiety come over us like a wave. In addition, the evil little minion is more than happy to suggest why we feel the way we do. Now, negative entities can't read our minds but they are much more intelligent than we are. After all, they are fallen angels. They are able to observe our actions and reactions and make highly educated guesses as to what we might be thinking. Moreover, they do have the capability of meddling with our emotions along with our imagination and memories. 

The evil minions often use our emotions, imagination and memories against us in the most subtle of ways and the most effective way, apparently, is they use these faculties to convince us that God does not care about us. And here is the clencher -- God doesn't care about us because He is indifferent, no -- the soul comes to the conclusion that God doesn't care about us because we are not worth caring about. We come to this false conclusion because that is the way we feel. We spend massive amounts of time trying to convince ourselves that God loves us and cares about us -- about YOU in particular.

These feelings, if not dealt with appropriately with fasting, prayer, the Sacraments and spiritual guidance cause despair, anxiety, depression and asking if life is even worth it. This truly is a time of testing and trial. For the devout soul, it's a time of walking through that valley of death and God is nowhere to be found. For the less devout there's not much of a struggle. They just give up and move on to anything that will make them feel better. But, of course, both you and I know it's a ruse.

So, it would be well to remember that we should never let ourselves be led around by our feelings. Granted, our Good Lord will, at times, allow us sweet spiritual consolations but we are counseled by saints and mystics that we are to love, with all our heart the God of our consolations and not the consolations of our God.

God Bless 

The Science Behind the Shroud of Turin

 

 

The Shroud of Turin is the purported burial cloth of Jesus. The burial cloth itself is about 11 feet long where, according to Jewish burial customs, the body is laid at one end and the cloth is then brought over the top of the head, then covering the front of the body. Kinda like a big “U”.

So, where did the Shroud’s story begin? The first documented historical mention of the Shroud was from 1354 -1355. Geoffrey DeCharny  had it housed in a church in Lirey, France. Who he obtained the Shroud from is unclear. Some speculate he obtained it from the Knights Templar, but it is not certain. When Geoffrey DeCharny passed, the Shroud was given to his granddaughter, Margaret. In turn, Margaret removed it from the church and hid it to protect it during the 100 yrs war and sought out a permanent place for its safekeeping. Margaret was not married, was in a state of financial insecurity, and had no heir to give it to for protection. So, she decided to give the Shroud to the Savoy family in exchange for the Shroud’s protection and personal financial security. It has remained in the possession of the Savoy’s and came under control of the Holy See in 1985.

Here is where it gets interesting. The year is 1898 and the Shroud was now displayed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin Italy. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Savoy Dynasty, the latest technology (a camera) was going to take a picture of the Shroud. The first picture of the Shroud was taken by Secondo Pia, an Italian lawyer. Mr. Pia was in no way prepared for what he was about to experience. As the film was developing, the image of a crucified man began to clearly emerge! It was as though the negative was a positive and that the Shroud as seen by the human eye was the negative. Everyone was astounded at what they witnessed! Years later, the buzz continued and caught the attention of another photographer, Giuseppe Enrie. He also took a photo of the Shroud in 1931. Photographic technology had improved somewhat since 1898. The developing process produced the same results, however with even greater detail.

The Shroud of Turin fell under great scrutiny and scientists became very interested in the Shroud, not so much as a religious relic but as a scientific artifact. The Shroud of Turin Research Project was founded in 1978. It was a team of 33 scientists from all over the world. However, things went quickly awry. In1988, Michael Tite ( a self-proclaimed atheist) and crew labeled it a “medieval hoax” after a shoddy carbon dating test was done on a repaired scrap of fiber from the Shroud. In addition, there was supposed to be 7 labs unknowingly carbon dating this contaminated sample, however, only 3 actually did. The Shroud was in a fire in 1532 and parts of it were repaired by the nuns who tended to it. This bad press lingered for several years. I actually remember when all this carbon dating kerfuffle took place. My first reaction was – Didn’t they say it was in a fire in the Middle Ages? Won’t that throw off a carbon dating test? I didn’t buy into this apparent definitive result and, thank goodness, neither did many other scientists.

The Shroud was also examined by scientists at JPL, Los Alamos, Sandia Labs and the Air Force Academy. None of them could explain how the image was produced in the Shroud. It wasn’t paint or a stain and it superficially laid on top of the linen. Each Lab concluded the image was not man-made. Two Air Force Academy physicists Prof. Eric Jumper and Prof. John Jackson used a VP8 image analyzer on the Shroud. A VP8 analyzer is used by NASA to study the surfaces of planets to as to get an image of their topography. When applied to the face of the image on the Shroud of Turin, the face became 3D! This imager did not produce the same results on any other picture – just the Shroud.

The dating issue was solved as time progressed and technology became more advanced. Pollen samples show that the Shroud was in Jerusalem and the way the linen has degraded, they can date it around 2000 years. There are also coins over the eyes (another Jewish burial custom of the time) turned out to be a coin that was only in circulation for a few years during the time of Jesus. Two years ago, the Institute of Crystalography used wide angle X-ray scattering to date the Shroud. The date came in at a narrow margin of 2000 years.

 Okay… so it was a crucified man – but was it Jesus? The brutal way this crucified man was tortured is not typical of Roman crucifixion. The number of lashes he received, the crown of thorns, the severe beating and the lance wound to the heart – all reported in the Gospels, are present. Each one of these horrendous acts is historically atypical and having them present on one man is statistically impossible. Scientists were able to determine the blood type as well. It is AB. AB is rare and mostly found in Middle Eastern men. It’s interesting to note that this blood type is also found in documented Eucharistic miracles.

Because of today’s technology, there is now a preponderance of evidence that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus. Another conclusion is that the image was most likely made by perfectly parallel particle beams of light consisting of 34 thousand trillion watt of energy in a 40^th of a billion of a second. There have been over 500,000 hours of scientific research (so far) spent on studying the Shroud of Turin. Also,102 academic disciplines have submitted articles in peer reviewed journals. The trend of calling the Shroud of Turin a “Medieval Hoax” is quickly approaching the dust bin of history, and it is science that is placing it there.

Personally, I find it no surprise that it took today’s technology to start decoding Shroud. And, they are still finding more on how the image was transferred using laser technology. It’s as if the Shroud was left to us knowing in the future, at the right time, when we have the right technology, humanity will need this discovery most.  Or… is the timing just a coincidence?

As St. Thomas Aquinas once said, “For those who have faith no explanation is necessary. For those without faith, no explanation is possible.”

If you are interested in delving deeper into this subject, I suggest you read Body of Proof, By Jeremiah Johnston. He documents much of the interesting scientific evidence in full detail.

 

 

SSPX and Pope Leo XIV -- How is This Going To End?

 

 

St. Michael, Pray For Us

As you have heard, Fr. Pagliarani, Superior General of The Society Of St. Pius X, is planning to ordain Bishops in June of this year, putting the ball in Pope Leo's court. However, Fr. Pagliarani provides a written document as to why he feels it is necessary and his explanation is not unreasonable. Let us pray that Pope Leo XIV truly listens to Fr. Pagliarani and notes both the validity and factual evidence that he brings to the table. We need to stop watering down our faith just because others may not understand our doctrines. This is a failure on behalf of our clergy to teach the doctrines of the Faith and is in no way a fault of the Faith itself. -- Listen carefully to the following video:

Watch Video Here

 

 

An Urgent Message from Bishop Strickland

 

 

 

When Silence, Confusion, and the Loss of the Sacred Endanger Souls 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, 

There are moments in the life of the Church when a shepherd feels a weight that cannot be ignored. Not a political pressure. Not a media storm. But a quiet, insistent sense of responsibility before God. A sense that silence, however comfortable it might seem, is no longer faithful. 

We are living in such a moment. 

The Church is not abandoned. Christ remains her Head. He is present in the Eucharist. He is faithful to His promises. And yet, many of the faithful feel unsettled. They feel disoriented. They struggle to put words to it, but they sense that something precious has been weakened, something essential has been obscured. 

They sense confusion – not just in the world, but within the Church herself. And confusion is never neutral.  

In Sacred Scripture, the Lord speaks to the prophet Ezekiel and entrusts him with a grave responsibility. He calls him a watchman. A watchman is not asked to predict danger, or to invent threats. He is simply commanded to remain awake, to see clearly, and to warn when danger approaches. If he fails to do so, the Lord says the blood of those harmed will be required at his hand.  

That image has been on my heart for some time now. Because bishops are not called merely to administer institutions or preserve calm. We are called to watch, to guard, and when necessary, to speak – even when speaking is costly. 

The greatest danger facing the Church today is not persecution from the outside. The Church has endured emperors, revolutions, prisons, and martyrdom. She has survived far worse than criticism or hostility. 

The deeper danger today is confusion within. Confusion about what the Church teaches. Confusion about what can change and what cannot. Confusion about the nature of mercy, about obedience, about worship, about sin, about God Himself. 

Most faithful Catholics are not rebellious. They are not angry. They are simply trying to be faithful – and they are asking for clarity. 

They wonder why clear teaching is so often replaced with careful ambiguity. They wonder why speaking plainly is treated as divisive, while silence is praised as pastoral. They wonder why what once seemed solid now feels negotiable. 

And this confusion touches everything, but nowhere is it felt more deeply than in the Church’s worship – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  

The liturgy is not merely one aspect of Church life among many. It is the heart. It is where the Church learns who God is and who she is in relation to Him. Worship forms belief. How we pray shapes how we think, how we live, and how we understand truth. 

Over the years, many of the faithful have sensed a loss of sacredness in the liturgy. A loss of reverence. A loss of verticality – that sense that we are being drawn upward toward God, rather than turned inward toward ourselves. 

They notice that silence has nearly vanished. That awe has been replaced by informality. That the altar can feel more like a table of gathering than the place of sacrifice. That God no longer seems unmistakably at the center.  

This is not about nostalgia. This is also not about rejecting the Mass or denying the validity of the Sacraments. Rather, it is about recognizing a spiritual consequence: when the sense of the sacred fades, belief weakens. When worship becomes horizontal, the soul slowly forgets heaven. 

This did not happen overnight. And it did not come from nowhere. 

The Second Vatican Council itself called for continuity, for organic development, for fidelity to what had been handed down. It warned explicitly against unnecessary innovations and against ruptures with tradition.  

And yet, in the years following that Council, changes were introduced that went far beyond what the Council Fathers envisioned. Experimental liturgical drafts that failed to receive clear approval nonetheless influenced later developments. Practices became widespread that the Council never mandated. And over time, form gave way to formlessness, discipline to improvisation, transcendence to familiarity. 

I do not speak of this to condemn, but to acknowledge reality. You cannot heal what you refuse to name. 

When worship loses its center, everything else begins to drift. Doctrine becomes harder to articulate. Moral teaching becomes uncomfortable. The call to repentance softens. And mercy is quietly separated from truth. 

We hear much about mercy today – and rightly so. Without mercy, none of us would stand. But mercy has been redefined. Too often it is presented as affirmation without conversion, accompaniment without direction, and compassion without truth. 

This is not the mercy of Christ. 

Christ forgives sins, but He always called souls to repentance. He healed, but He also warned. He comforted, but He spoke plainly about sin, judgment, and eternal life. 

A Church that refuses to warn souls of danger is not being merciful. She is abandoning them.  

In recent months, the Church has witnessed a consistory of cardinals, with further gatherings anticipated. For many Catholics, these events feel distant and abstract. But they are not insignificant. They shape the future leadership of the Church. They reveal priorities. They influence how the Church will teach, worship, and govern for decades to come. 

That is why this moment matters. 

Decisions made without honest historical understanding, without a clear diagnosis of the Church’s wounds, risk deepening confusion rather than healing it. Silence does not preserve unity. Avoidance does not protect communion. Truth spoken with charity does. 

Many Catholics today wrestle with a painful question: how to remain obedient without betraying the truth. How to stay faithful without becoming silent. How to love the Church while acknowledging her wounds.  

True obedience is not blind submission to confusion. It is fidelity to Christ and to the Church as she has always taught. The saints understood this. They remained within the Church. They suffered misunderstanding. They spoke with reverence – and with courage. 

Obedience never requires us to deny reality. It never demands silence in the face of error. It never asks us to pretend that confusion is clarity. 

This is not a time for despair. Christ has not abandoned His Church. But it is a time for watchfulness. A time for courage. A time for bishops to teach clearly, for priests to worship reverently, and for the faithful to remain grounded, prayerful, and steadfast.  

The Church will not be renewed by fear. She will not be healed by ambiguity. She will not be strengthened by silence. 

She will be renewed by truth, strengthened by reverence, and healed by fidelity to Christ. 

Because at this point, the crisis in the Church can no longer be explained as a lack of information. The facts are not hidden. The history is not inaccessible. The fruits are visible in every diocese – in empty seminaries, confused catechesis, and Catholics who no longer know what the Church actually teaches. 

What we are facing now is not a crisis of knowledge. It is a crisis of will. 

For more than half a century, bishops, theologians, and Church leaders have had ample time to study what happened, to examine what was intended, what was implemented, and what has borne good fruit – and what has not. The loss of reverence did not go unnoticed. The collapse in belief in the Real Presence was documented decades ago. The flattening of worship, the trivialization of the sacred, the disappearance of silence – none of this came as a surprise. 

And yet, very little was corrected. Not because it could not be corrected. But because correction is costly. 

It is far easier to speak in generalities than to name causes. It is far safer to affirm intentions than to judge outcomes. It is far more comfortable to repeat phrases about “journeying together” than to say, plainly, this has failed, and souls are paying the price. 

At some point, repeating the same language becomes its own form of dishonesty. And that is where we are now. 

When cardinals meet, when bishops gather, they are not simply participating in ceremonial moments. They are exercising real authority. They are shaping the future of the Church. And when those moments pass without honest reckoning, the message is clear, even if unspoken: we know there is a problem, but we are unwilling to confront it. 

That silence speaks. 

It tells priests that reverence is optional. It tells seminarians that clarity is dangerous. It tells the faithful that what they sense in their hearts must be ignored. And over time, it teaches the Church to lower her expectations – of worship, of doctrine, of holiness itself. 

This is why the current moment matters so deeply. 

Another consistory. Another reshaping of leadership. Another opportunity either to face reality – or to avoid it yet again.  

And avoidance always has consequences. 

Because when leaders refuse to act, the burden shifts downward. Parish priests are left to navigate impossible expectations. Faithful Catholics are forced to choose between silence and suspicion. Young people conclude that the Church does not actually believe what she claims to teach. 

That is not unity. That is slow erosion. 

It must be said clearly: the problem is no longer that cardinals and bishops do not know. The problem is that many have decided it is safer not to act. 

Safer not to correct liturgical abuse. Safer not to restore reverence. Safer not to defend unpopular truths. Safer not to risk being labeled “rigid” or “divisive. 

But a shepherd who chooses safety over truth is not protecting the flock. He is leaving it exposed. And this is where obedience has been dangerously misunderstood. 

Obedience does not mean pretending that wounds are not wounds. It does not mean praising confusion as complexity. It does not mean surrendering the Church’s worship and teaching to the spirit of the age. 

True obedience is fidelity to Christ – even when fidelity brings suffering. 

The saints did not remain silent when the faith was obscured. They did not wait for permission to defend what the Church had always taught. They spoke with reverence, yes – but they spoke! 

And many paid a price for it. 

If we are honest, that price is precisely what many fear today. Not persecution, but loss of standing. Not martyrdom, but marginalization. Not death, but being quietly set aside. 

But the Church was not built on career safety. She was built on sacrifice. 

This is why the loss of the sacred cannot be treated as a secondary issue. It is not aesthetic. It is not generational. It is theological.  

When worship no longer clearly expresses sacrifice, transcendence, and the primacy of God, the Church herself begins to forget who she is. And when leaders refuse to correct that drift – not because they do not see it, but because they do not wish to confront it – the damage deepens. 

At some point, love for the Church must be stronger than fear of consequences. At some point, bishops and cardinals must decide whether they are content to manage decline – or willing to suffer for renewal. This is not a call to rebellion. It is a call to responsibility. 

Because the watchman is not judged by whether the people listen. He is judged by whether he warned. And the hour for warning is no longer approaching. It is here! 

And so I want to say this clearly, and I say it first to God, and then to you. 

I CANNOT REMAIN SILENT. 

Not because I believe I am wiser than others. Not because I think I stand above the Church. But because I am a bishop – and a bishop does not belong to himself. 

I was ordained to guard what I did not create. To hand on what I did not invent. To warn when danger threatens souls – even when that warning is unwelcome. 

There comes a moment when repeating careful language becomes a way of avoiding responsibility. When patience becomes postponement. When restraint becomes refusal. 

I believe we are past that moment now. 

So as long as God grants me breath and office, I will warn. I will speak when silence is easier. I will name confusion when it is disguised as complexity. I will defend the sacred when it is treated as optional. I will insist that worship must place God – not ourselves – at the center. 

I do not say this with anger. I say it with sorrow. And with resolve. 

Because a bishop will one day stand before Christ and give an account – not of how well he avoided conflict, but of whether he protected the flock entrusted to him. 

If I am ignored, so be it. If I am criticized, so be it. If I am set aside, so be it. 

But I will not stand before the Lord and say that I saw the danger and chose silence. 

To my brother bishops, I say this with respect and urgency: we do not need more studies, more processes, or more carefully worded statements. We need courage. We need honesty. We need to recover the sacred fear of God. 

To priests, I say: guard the altar. Love the liturgy. Teach the truth even when it costs you. 

To the faithful, I say: do not lose heart. Christ has not abandoned His Church. Stay rooted. Stay reverent. Stay faithful. Pray for your shepherds – especially when they fail. 

And to all of us, I say this: 

The watchman is not responsible for how the people respond. He is responsible for whether he warned. 

And I intend to warn with even more resolve, with even more courage, and with even more fire – in the coming days.  

May God grant me the grace to do so with humility, fidelity, and perseverance – until the day He calls me to give an account. 

And now, as we close, I ask you to pause for a moment and place yourselves quietly before the Lord. 

May Almighty God look with mercy upon His Church, wounded yet beloved. 

May He strengthen all who are confused, weary, or afraid. 

May He purify our worship, restore reverence to our altars, and turn our hearts again toward what is eternal. 

May the Lord grant courage to His bishops, fidelity to His priests, and perseverance to all the faithful who seek Him in truth. 

May He protect you from discouragement, guard you from error, and keep you steadfast in the faith handed down from the apostles. 

And may Almighty God bless you and keep you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland 

Bishop Emeritus

 Go to pillarsoffaith.net for more of Bishop Strickland's Podcasts and letters to the faithful.