Medjugorje Message: April 25, 2020
Dear children! May this time be an incentive for personal conversion for you. Pray, little children, in solitude, to the Holy Spirit to strengthen you in faith and trust in God, that you may be worthy witnesses of the love which God bestows upon you through my presence. Little children, do not permit trials to harden your heart and for prayer to be like a desert. Be a reflection of God’s love and witness the Risen Jesus by your lives. I am with you and I love all of you with my motherly love. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
May 2020
Our Lady’s Easter message, while acknowledging “this time” of our worldwide coronavirus crisis, invites us to be “witnesses” of Love and Resurrection, even in these strange and difficult circumstances of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine. In many ways, the historic situation in which we find ourselves provides us an even greater opportunity to cultivate and propagate our Easter faith, and to witness the Risen Lord with an “Alleluia attitude” of loving trust.
Our Lady begins: “May this time be an incentive for personal conversion for you. Pray, little children, in solitude, to the Holy Spirit to strengthen you in faith and trust in God, that you may be worthy witnesses of the love which God bestows upon you through my presence.” This month of May ends with the great feast of Pentecost, and Our Lady’s message echoes the time before the first Christian Pentecost after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, when Mary and the apostles prayed in the “solitude” of the Lord’s absence from their midst, awaiting the promised Holy Spirit who would “strengthen their faith and trust in God” and make of them all “worthy witnesses” who would bravely go out to preach the Gospel to all nations, even in the face of deadly persecution by which thousands were martyred, seeding the Church with their blood.
In referring to “this time” of “solitude,” it is obvious that Our Lady is also addressing our unique and unprecedented moment in history, when, for the first time, the entire human family on planet Earth is consciously united in one common purpose—to survive and overcome an infection that has now afflicted millions of people around the globe: the virus that is “novel” or “new” in its extreme contagiousness and lethal deadliness, ten times worse than the influenza that kills thousands each year.
Our Lady is well aware that the first simple and effective means for human survival of Covid-19 has turned out to be “SOLITUDE”—the state of being physically alone and separated from others through “social distancing” and “sheltering-in-place,” a.k.a. “staying at home.” This vital practice stops the spread of the virus until it either dies out naturally or a vaccine is developed for its prevention. So millions of people worldwide are suddenly “home alone” rather than working with colleagues at their jobs….”home alone” rather than gathering with family and friends to socialize, celebrate, worship, recreate, grieve deaths, or eat and drink communally. Thus our human life on earth has changed drastically in the past several weeks of this voluntary self-isolation—all done for the sake of our own survival and, more importantly, for the sake of others who are most vulnerable to contracting and dying from the virus, as well as our overburdened health-care workers on the frontlines of treating the sick.
But aside from this current mandated necessity for our physical survival, what does Our Lady wish for us to find in “SOLITUDE”? Thomas Merton, seeking greater solitude in his life, lived in a hermitage in his final years; still, solitude was elusive, and he was surprised to discover what it really meant when he experienced it: “Solitude was being fully inside his own skin, inside the present moment, gratefully aware of the immense richness that is contained inside of ordinary human experience. Solitude consists in being enough inside of your own life to actually experience what is there.” (Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI) So this heightened awareness of “Being Here Now,” present to Presence in the present moment of our life, is what Our Lady wishes for us. When we are utterly silent, alert, and listening to the “sound of silence” that underlies all sound and activity, we experience most keenly the “solitude” that vibrates with the presence of Spirit.
Our Lady calls for “this time to be an incentive for personal conversion.” She wants the dramatic external change that has already happened in our outward activity, behavior and lifestyle to lead us toward a deeply profound interior and “personal” change, as well, which she names “CONVERSION”—the very call she has repeated for 39 years in Medjugorje. With everyone “sheltered-in-place” at home and “socially distanced” in public, there is a tremendous opening of opportunity for INNER WORK: time and space in our formerly frenetic, distracted, scattered, hyperactive daily schedule for reflection, recollection, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, meditation, prayer, contemplation, moral inventory, discernment of choices, past life review and future goal-setting. Specifically, Our Lady invites us to use this precious time in “solitude” to PRAY to the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in faith and trust in God, so that we “may be worthy witnesses of the love God bestows on us.”
Our Lady’s approach here calls to mind her attitude after the Annunciation, finding herself a virgin pregnant with the Son of God. Like our current time of fear and apprehension, those first days and weeks for Mary were filled with mind-boggling mystery, unanswered questions, confusion, and the real danger and threat of serious harm or physical death to herself. Nevertheless, very quickly Our Lady voiced her Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior…God who is mighty has done great things for me.” (Lk 1:46) Here we see that, even though it must have been a terrifying situation, full of anxiety, Our Lady was “a worthy witness of the love God bestowed on her.” No doubt in SOLITUDE she had prayed to the Holy Spirit who had overshadowed her in the miraculous act of conception, to strengthen her faith and trust in God—just as she invites us to do today in the midst of our “solitude” within the frightful pandemic crisis. We, too, are invited to focus our attention on all the GOOD God has done for us, especially through Our Lady’s presence, and to remain calmly centered in a grateful heart expressing thanks for the gifts of each day, which we now have time to perceive more clearly.
Indeed, this quarantine “time out” from “normal life” is bringing millions of people into both subtle and sensational “Ah-ha!” moments of realization about themselves and their priorities as we all begin to see and experience, through the lens of “solitude,” just what we truly value and need for a meaningful life on earth. Newfound respect and reverence are growing in our relationships to Nature, our planet, and the people (both known and unknown) whom we previously under-appreciated or took for granted. “Personal conversion” is always aimed at change that is lasting and ongoing—not something temporary, transient, situational, or fleeting. Thus we pray that our world and our lives do NOT simply “return to normal” after the pandemic ends, but that we carry forward the changes and conversion for the better that we are experiencing during this scary/sacred time.
Our Lady continues: “Little children, do not permit trials to harden your heart and for prayer to be like a desert. Be a reflection of God’s love and witness the Risen Jesus by your lives.” The “trials” of life “harden our hearts” when, instead of applying prayer and faith to our hardships, we allow our ego/false self to react negatively to the thwarting of its Programs for Happiness that will never work: the futile pursuits of ultimate fulfillment in Safety/Security, Affection/Esteem, and Power/Control. In every life, these programs will eventually be revealed and dismantled as incapable of bringing us lasting joy or peace. How does this present crisis threaten to “harden our heart” and make of our prayer a “desert”?
Human beings are social animals from the start, when God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen 2:18) Created in the divine image, just like our Trinitarian Creator God who IS love and relationship, we humans require connection with others for our well-being. (Thus “solitary confinement” is considered the harshest, most inhumane form of punishment.) During this coronavirus crisis, people are finding countless creative ways—technological and otherwise—to be “Alone Together” and stay connected emotionally and spiritually if not physically. Still, for many, the necessary isolation is a heavy cross and hard trial, causing serious depression and anxiety.
Likewise, for many, the economic hardship of unemployment rivaling the Great Depression is critically impacting, too, as financial security is vanishing, leading to desperate feelings of fear, frustration, and anger expressed in domestic violence and substance abuse. And the universal sense of powerlessness and helplessness to control the timetable of the virus and its resolution is being expressed in irrational, reactionary armed protests against the stay-at-home orders instituted for our safety and protection, with people jeopardizing their own and others’ health by defying the measures taken to contain the spread of infection. Thus the Covid-19 pandemic has managed to challenge all three of our False Self Programs for happiness: Safety/Security; Affection/Esteem; and Power/Control.
But Our Lady asks that we not permit these trials to “harden our heart” or turn our prayer life into “a desert.” The Desert of Temptation that Jesus confronted after his baptism was filled with the three ego challenges of the False Self programs: safety/security (the need for food); affection/esteem (the wish for fame); and power/control (the chance for dominion). Our Lady affirms that we can CHOOSE TO REBUKE or renounce the demonic forces of ego that assail us in our time of trial—just as Jesus did—by NOT SUCCUMBING to the fear, loneliness, and raging desperation that can be our natural human reactions to the pandemic and its difficult antidote of “solitude.”
Instead, Our Lady invites us to “be a reflection of God’s love and witness the Risen Jesus by your lives.” We are thus invited to respond to our momentous trial in this historic pandemic crisis as Mary did in her Magnificat—by using this unique, unprecedented event in our life as an opportunity to “be a reflection of God’s love.” That is, to “magnify the Lord” through our attention and care for others in need and an openly grateful attitude for all the gifts we can perceive in each day. As Easter people, we are to exude CONFIDENCE in eternal life rather than fear of death. Jesus said, “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart; I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33) Knowing this, we can truly “witness the Risen Jesus by our lives,” alleluia, alleluia!
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Choose to perceive in every event today the Presence of transforming grace.
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MAY: Mary’s Month—Pope Francis Requests Daily Rosary!
In a letter to all the faithful, Pope Francis wrote:
I want to encourage everyone to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May…either as a group or individually….The key to doing this is always simplicity. I am also providing two prayers to Our Lady that you can recite at the end of the Rosary, and that I myself will pray in the month of May, in spiritual union with all of you…. Dear brothers and sisters, contemplating the face of Christ with the heart of Mary our Mother will make us even more united as a spiritual family and will help us overcome this time of trial.
First Prayer:
O Mary, you shine continuously on our journey
as a sign of salvation and hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who, at the foot of the cross, were united with Jesus’ suffering
and persevered in your faith….
You know our needs, and we know that you will provide,
so that, as at Cana in Galilee,
joy and celebration may return after this time of trial.
Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform ourselves to the will of the Father
and to do what Jesus tells us.
For he took upon himself our suffering and
burdened himself with our sorrows to bring us,
through the cross, to the joy of the Resurrection. Amen.
Second Prayer:
In the present tragic situation, when the whole world
is prey to suffering and anxiety, we fly to you,
Mother of God and our Mother,
and seek refuge under your protection.
Virgin Mary, turn your merciful eyes towards us
amid this coronavirus pandemic.
Comfort those who are distraught and mourn their loved ones
who have died….Be close to those who are concerned
for their loved ones who are sick, and who cannot be close to them.
Fill with hope those who are troubled by the uncertainty
of the future and the consequences for the economy and employment.
Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us to God,
the Father of mercies, that this great suffering may end
and that hope and peace may dawn anew….
Protect those doctors, nurses, health workers and volunteers
who are on the frontline of this emergency,
and are risking their lives to save others.
Support their heroic effort and grant them strength,
generosity and continued health. Be close to those who assist
the sick night and day, and to priests who are trying to help everyone.
Blessed Virgin, illumine the minds of men and women
engaged in scientific research, that they may find
effective solutions to overcome this virus.
Support national leaders, that with wisdom, solicitude and generosity
they may come to the aid of those lacking the basic necessities of life
and may devise social and economic solutions inspired by solidarity.
Mary Most Holy, stir our consciences, so that the enormous funds
invested in developing arms will instead be spent on promoting
effective research on how to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Beloved Mother, help us realize that we are all members of one
great family and to recognize that bond that unites us….
Make us strong in faith, persevering in service, constant in prayer.
Amen.
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Right now I’m trying to take in psychologically, spiritually, and personally, what is God trying to say? I’m not saying that God causes suffering to teach us good things. But God does use everything, and if God wanted us to experience global solidarity, I can’t think of a better way. We all have access to this suffering, and it bypasses race, gender, religion, and nation. We are in the midst of a highly teachable moment. We have a chance to go deep, and to go broad. Globally, we’re in this together. Depth is being forced on us by great suffering, which always leads to great love.
But for God to reach us, we have to allow suffering to wound us. Now is no time for an academic solidarity with the world. Real solidarity needs to be felt and suffered. What is going to happen to those living in isolated places or for those without health care? Imagine the fragility of the most marginalized, of people in prisons, the homeless, or even those performing necessary services…risking their lives to keep society together? Our feelings of urgency and devastation are not an exaggeration….we have to allow these feelings, and invite God’s presence to hold us in a time of collective prayer and lament. Love always means going beyond yourself to otherness. We must be stretched to an encounter with otherness… the subject-subject relationship. Love alone overcomes fear and is the true foundation that lasts.
—Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans
Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.
We will bring the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt.
We will stop
the planes
the trains
the schools
the malls
the meetings
the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you
from hearing our single and shared beating heart,
the way we breathe together, in unison.
Our obligation is to each other,
As it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten.
We will interrupt this broadcast, the endless cacophonous broadcast
of divisions and distractions,
to bring you this long-breaking news:
We are not well.
None of us; all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth
did not give you pause.
Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time,
hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body.
We will bring the fever to your body.
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs
that you might hear:
We are not well.
Despite what you might think or feel, we are not the enemy.
We are the Messenger. We are Ally. We are a balancing force.
We are asking you:
To stop, to be still, to listen;
To move beyond your individual concerns and
consider the concerns of all;
To be with your ignorance, to find your humility, to relinquish
your thinking minds and travel deep into the mind of the heart;
To look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it,
to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy?
How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health
contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
To visit a river, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, clean, murky, polluted?
How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
How does its health contribute to the health of the tree, who contributes to
the health of the sky, so that you may also be healthy?
Many are afraid now.
Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you.
Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness, listen for its wisdom.
What might it be telling you about what is at work, at issue, at risk,
beyond the threats of personal inconvenience and illness?
As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about the quality
of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you
about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky,
and all of us who share this planet with you?
Stop.
Notice if you are resisting.
Notice what you are resisting.
Ask why.
Stop. Just stop.
Be still.
Listen.
Ask us what we might teach you about illness and healing,
about what might be required so that all may be well.
We will help you, if you listen.
—Kristin Flyntz
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It is difficult to look existential threats in the face. The truth is the future is unknown and unpredictable; things may get a lot worse before they get better, or things may get better temporarily, or simply remain in the flux and flow of uncertainty. What is even more alarming is that we are waiting for this crisis “to pass” so that we can return to “normal.” We anticipate that life will continue “as usual” once we find a vaccine for Covid-19. But what is “normal”? We have no social, psychological, spiritual/ religious, political or economic tools to deal with breakdown, chaos and disequilibrium that mark our present age. We have become so thoroughly conditioned by the modern framework of individualism and Newtonian mechanistic systems—objective, controllable, manageable and profitable systems—chaotic disorder seems an absurd defect to be quickly remedied.
It is time to embrace our new reality; medieval Christianity is bankrupt; Newtonian systems are deadly, and individualism is an illusion. Evolution is speeding up. The fastest evolver today is technology. Yet for all the good the internet affords us during these days of lockdown, we miss human relationships. We are social beings by nature and religious beings as well, for God springs up precisely in and through relationships.
One of the insights from desert spirituality is the spirit of poverty. Francis of Assisi taught his followers to live sine proprio—not necessarily without material things but without possessing anything. The modern autonomous individual has learned to possess everything, creating conditions of separation and division; but life in the flow of God calls us to live sine proprio—in the spirit of dispossession. The modern autonomous individual is frightened by dispossession because it equals powerlessness. But St. Francis realized that material things can create an illusion of power that can vaporize by the snap of a virus. One who finds God will find all that one needs. As St. Teresa said, “God alone suffices.” This is not spiritual pep-talk; this is the deepest root of our reality.
—Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF
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Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality,” trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
—Arundhati Roy
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We cannot discount the real grief in which many dwell in this time of Corona. The loss of a previous livelihood and the loss of loved ones are experiences of deep pain and anguish. There is no consolation except in the Risen Christ.
At the same time, Easter in the time of Corona invites all of us to look closer and dig deeper. Easter is not the time to look for answers in the tomb like Mary Magdalene. “Why are you weeping?” We are invited by the Resurrected Christ to always and everywhere go out of our ego-centered decisions and embrace LIFE collectively. We are invited to stop holding on to life “before Corona”; rather, go, tell my brothers, my sisters, that the God of life is asking us to transform ego-centered economies, ritualistic religions, and isolated survival mechanisms into new ways of being ONE in solidarity, to live in communion.
How do we embrace Resurrection when death tolls keep climbing and the quarantine of Lent has become a prolonged Crucifixion? Perhaps by realizing that it is not “corona” that is making us suffer—but believing that salvation is only for humanity. Redemption embraces all of God’s creation, yet we are in very concrete ways responsible for crucifying the earth. In the time of Corona, perhaps we embrace Resurrection by recognizing that the renewal of creation made possible by Christ is not just for us, but for all of creation. Still, the God of Jesus prevails. “Alleluia! This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it!” We have been forgiven and given the gift of the Holy Spirit to help transform this “corrupt generation.” We are the Risen Christ when we come together to proclaim and celebrate that indeed the “earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.“
—Sr. Hilda Mateo, MGSpS
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The Practice of FRUGALITY: How to Use Our Downtime
Ancient humans did not have to practice restraint. They had neither the technical capacity nor the cultural habits of excess. Indigenous cultures, living much closer to the Earth than we do, have traditionally passed the habit of restraint from one generation to the next, since restraint in consumption, behavior, life ways and relationships also confers survival advantage to the tribe. When the word is used to describe truly sustainable relationships with resources, “restrained” is equivalent to “frugal”: being careful with the fruits of the Earth and of one’s labors. The ancients and indigenous cultures are habitually frugal.
“Simplify, simplify, simplify,” were Henry David Thoreau’s three rules for living a life in harmony with Nature—that is, within our own and Earth’s means. Wanda Urbanska explained that “Simple Living’s four tenets are: environmental stewardship, thoughtful consumption, community involvement, and financial responsibility.” Though the scale of our simplification and restraint will have to be as grand and far-reaching as the scale of our complexification and consumption have been, engaging in these four practices would lead us in the direction of living good lives rather than “goods lives.”
Humans have balked at both voluntary and involuntary frugality ever since greed and wealth have been an option. On the other hand, we have also found peace of mind, freed time and a sense of belonging, self-worth and accomplishment when we have taken up frugality with the same passion with which we sought wealth. The desire to survive may stir that passion in us when we fully realize that doing more of what we have been doing is fatal.
One way to practice restraint is to follow Life’s pattern of downtimes, using day/night and seasonal cycles like premodern societies did, as opportunities:
1) To refurbish and repair tools, equipment, buildings, infrastructure and relationships
2) To both help and allow bodies and ecosystems to renew themselves
3) To refresh and expand the community’s base of knowledge
4) To reflect on successes and failures and decide what needs to be done differently
These activities can be seen as investment in personal, family and community well-being rather than “time off.” Building in downtimes is “fallowing,” letting land regenerate after a period of cultivation. Fallowing is investment in short-term non-production in order to maintain long-term yields. It is exemplified in the ancient Hebrews’ Jubilee.
—Ellen Laconte
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You will lose everything. Your money, your power, your fame, your success, perhaps even your memories. Your looks will diminish. Loved ones will die. Your body will fall apart. Everything that seems permanent is in truth impermanent and will be smashed. Experience will gradually, or not so gradually, strip away everything that it can strip away. Waking up means facing this reality with open eyes.
But right now, in this very moment, you stand on sacred and holy ground, for that which will be lost has not yet been lost, and realizing this simple thing is the key to unspeakable joy. Whoever or whatever is in your life right now has not yet been taken away from you. Everything is present.
The universal law of impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heart-breaking gratitude. Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar.
—Jeff Foster
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (Jesus to his disciples, Mk 4:40) Lord, your word strikes us. In this world that you love more than we do, we have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and lured away by haste. We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick. Now that we are in a stormy sea, we implore you to save us.
Lord, you are calling us to faith…coming to you and trusting in you. You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing. It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others. We can look to so many exemplary companions for the journey, who, though fearful, have reacted by giving their lives. This is the force of the Spirit poured out….our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people—often forgotten people—who are in these days writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law and order forces, volunteers, priests, and so many others who have understood that no one reaches salvation by themselves.
—To be continued…from the “Urbi et Orbi” Message given by Pope Francis on March 27, 2020, along with an extraordinary Blessing and Plenary Indulgence for Everyone in the World who prays for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic
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Mark Your Calendar [ai1ec view=”agenda”]
To reject the contemplative dimension of any religion is to reject the religion itself, however loyal one may be to its externals and rituals. This is because the contemplative dimension is the heart and soul of every religion. It initiates the movement into higher states of consciousness. The great wisdom teachings of the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddhist Sutras, Old and New Testaments, and the Koran bear witness to this truth. Right now there are about two billion Christians on the planet. If a significant portion of them were to embrace the contemplative dimension of the gospel, the emerging global society would experience a powerful surge toward enduring peace. If this contemplative dimension of the Christian religion is not presented, the Gospel is not being adequately preached.
– Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
