Memento Mori 🙏🏻

Blessed Anna Maria Taigi

May 29, 1769 - June 9, 1837

Feast Day: June 9

Patronage: housewives, mothers, families, victims of verbal and spousal abuse

Blessed Anna Maria Taigi was an Italian housewife, mother, and mystic. At age 20 she married Dominic Taigi and soon after had a conversion to renounce all vanities. Mortification, patience, humility, and devotion to the Church became her life. The couple had 7 children, 3 of whom died in infancy. She conversed with Jesus and Mary and was able to see hidden and future events through a miraculous luminous globe that stayed with her at all times. Her love for the Trinity prompted her to become a Secular Trinitarian, living an ordinary life as a wife and mother. Her body remained incorrupt for several years after her death and Pope Benedict XV declared her blessed on May 30, 1920.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

It’s the start of today’s Gospel (all of Jesus’ “Blessed are the…” sayings). And it’s something we don’t really hear anywhere else. So what does it mean to be “poor in spirit?”

The whole “blessed are the poor is spirit” thing is both a reality check. And a promise.

The reality check? Being poor in spirit is nothing that you and I have to do. Rather, being poor in spirit is where we are, today and every day.

Every day you and I start off from a place of need, a place of poverty. Lacking what we need spiritually, and (on one level or another) being acutely aware of that shortfall.

If you wonder where our anxiety comes from? This is a big part of it.

We may deal with it in different ways. Trying to meet that need through success or stuff, distractions or addictions. But however we do it, all of still comes from that same place of need, of poverty.

Because no matter how much we want to be self-sufficient (and we want to be), the simple truth is that we are not self-sufficient. And never can be.

God knows this about us.

God’s point of reminding us of this? That’s the promise.

To make sure that we know this about us. To make sure that we know that we don’t have to handle this on our own.

God loves us too much to leave us stuck. Lacking what we need.

Stuck trying to be something that we never can be – self-sufficient.

God loves us so much – that He’s willing to do whatever it takes to meet our need (in case you wondered what Good Friday was all about).

Giving us what we need. Helping us to be what we were always meant to be – God-sufficient.

To cheer up friends with little things like a meme or an animal video. One less moment of being sad/angry.

  – Guest Submission

Saint Medard of Noyon

ca. 456 - 545

Feast Day: June 8

Patronage: Meteorologists; good weather; and protection against bad weather; vineyards; brewers; those suffering from toothaches; farmers; prisoners; those with mental illness

Saint Medard of Noyon was born in a noble family and was known for his considerable knowledge, piety, simplicity, and devotion to Mary at a young age. He was a bishop of Noyon, France for 30 years, founding churches and monasteries and helping the poor. It's said that when a child an eagle sheltered him with its wings from a severe rainstorm. He's famous for his healing intercession and forecasting the weather. Legend says that if it rains or is sunny on his feast day, June 8, the weather will continue to be the same for the next 40 days.

At the start of my employment, my boss showed me videos of people stealing, and we both had a chuckle about it. How silly they were! There was a camera overhead, and it’s not to watch the shoppers. See, we can’t actually stop shoplifters. They get away with it maybe nine out of ten times. But we, who are watched and tallied and witnessed? We are always caught.

At first it was hard to hold one hundred dollars bills. An amount I had never seen before. An amount that didn’t exist in my household. It’s normal now. Here is something that is not for me.

“What the hell, I’ll take another,” says the man, pondering our 200 dollar watches. What the hell. Total comes to 580 and not even a flinch in his face. I have been working for 11 hours today and made only 110 dollars. It will go to my rent. Today I work for free, it feels. When I get my check, I will have 35 dollars left for food and saving.

The six hundreds he hands me go into the cash register. For a moment, I imagine having money. Then I put it away, counting out his change.

I know for a fact we sell our products for double what they are worth. That I could be making commission. That they could hand me those 580 dollars and change my life and not even mark the difference in their checkbooks. He’s not the only sale they make today, but I am the reason they made it. He’s not the only one spending 600 dollars, but if I hadn’t spent two hours with him telling me about his life, he wouldn’t have spent any. I go home. I don’t own a watch.

I have watched and rewatched a video on how to make salmon four ways. My shopping list is always the same. Pasta. Rice. Tuna. If I can afford butter it was a good week. I dream of the world I will never walk in, where I can throw the best fish fillet in the cart with a shrug. I hold hundreds in my hand and look up at the camera. I put them under the cash drawer.

I go to work. I scrap together my savings. I eat my bowl of rice slowly. My manager takes a paid week off from work just for his birthday. He owns a yacht. 

i was part of their college program. i moved to the state for it. they legally owned the building i was living in and still charged me rent. i ostensibly was being charged to work for them. it was a 2 bedroom apartment and they placed 6 adult women in it in forced triples.

as many as one in ten disney employees have experienced homelessness while working for the company. despite huge efforts to unionize, strike, or otherwise demand fair treatment; disney has refused to increase employee quality of life.

disney admits publicly that a good portion of their success is because the employees (“cast members”) are dedicated, passionate, and selfless. this is never reflected in pay. even “face” characters (ie those that are princesses etc) make barely above a minimum wage.

at the time that i worked there, i made $8.50 an hour. at one point i was asked to create a human shield around a bag because a bomb dog had alerted to it. for eight fucking dollars an hour.

i now work a very cushy office job. i have bought the salmon and cooked it all four ways.

i go to the store. i am nice to the person behind the counter. she looks up at the camera while she counts out my change. there is nothing fundamentally different about her and i.

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

Saint Medard of Noyon

ca. 456 - 545

Feast Day: June 8

Patronage: Meteorologists; good weather; and protection against bad weather; vineyards; brewers; those suffering from toothaches; farmers; prisoners; those with mental illness

Saint Medard of Noyon was born in a noble family and was known for his considerable knowledge, piety, simplicity, and devotion to Mary at a young age. He was a bishop of Noyon, France for 30 years, founding churches and monasteries and helping the poor. It's said that when a child an eagle sheltered him with its wings from a severe rainstorm. He's famous for his healing intercession and forecasting the weather. Legend says that if it rains or is sunny on his feast day, June 8, the weather will continue to be the same for the next 40 days.

My friend needs a hug from me every so often.

  – Guest Submission

My younger sibling. I want to watch him get better and heal. Same with my other sibling, too. They're very dear to me.

  – Guest Submission

Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Corpus Christi