random thoughts for a Monday night

• DC's first opera company was formed at my old church. I never knew this. Amy Welborn has the rather interested story here.
  
  
• I just saw this on the Catholic Conservation blog. Cardinal Egan plays rough!
• 
  Der Tomissar doesn't post much anymore but this reflection on love and what we do for it is really quite beautiful in a way.

Behold the Man

This Lent, behold Him as you never have before. Draw closer to Him as you never have before.

Chaplet in Honor of the Sacred Face

Most Sacred Face, we call on You until You hear our prayers. You are able to help us wonderfully, Holy God, Mighty God, Holy Immortal God! Have mercy on us and on the whole world! Turn Your Face towards us and we shall be saved!

At the large beads we pray:
Heavenly Father, humbly and fervently we offer You the infinite merits and sufferings of the Sacred Face, His Precious Blood, all the wounds and tears of Jesus, to Your greater Glory, for help in our great need!
At the small beads, instead of the Hail Mary, we pray:

FIRST DECADE
O Sacred Face, covered with wounds, have mercy on us, who call on You!

SECOND DECADE
O Sacred Face, covered with blood, have mercy on us who call on You!

THIRD DECADE
O Sacred Face, shedding tears with infinite Love, have mercy on us who call on You!

FOURTH DECADE
O Sacred Face, despised and insulted, have mercy on us who call on You!

FIFTH DECADE
O Sacred Face, silently bearing the most bitter pain, have mercy on us who call on You!

Conclude:

Let us adore the Sacred Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Savior, Whose merits are infinite and Whose mercy is fathomless. May He grant us the remission of our sins and true conversion. Let us console His Sacred Face by the purity of our lives, by fearless witness to our Faith and by the depth of our love!

Amen.

THE GOLDEN ARROW PRAYER

MAY THE MOST HOLY, MOST SACRED, MOST ADORABLE, MOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE AND UNUTTERABLE NAME OF GOD BE ALWAYS PRAISED, BLESSED, LOVED, ADORED AND GLORIFIED, IN HEAVEN, ON EARTH AND UNDER THE EARTH, BY ALL THE CREATURES OF GOD, AND BY THE SACRED HEART OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR.

AMEN.

Oh Lord, show us thy Face and we shall be saved!

Saturday I got up early and caught a cab to church. We only have one car and my husband was at work and I missed the bus. Oh well. Fr. Theoden reccomended a group to me that cleans up after Mass. I met the leader of the group but they weren't doing their thing that day. As my stomach was curling up in knots (nerves--- I'm shy and talking to new people sometimes makes me ill) I was relieved. I'll come back next Saturday.

After Mass I read the little office of the Blessed Virgin and did the Stations. Fr. sat a few pews in front of me saying his Breviary. That was inspiring. I missed the bus on my return trip and decided to walk instead of standing in the cold at the stop. I enjoyed the walk, I met friendly people and was "kissed" by a happy giant poodle which was really great.

It was a three mile up hill walk and my legs are aching today. Rocky, was somewhat cautious about the whole thing. He argued that one : I normally don't get up until ten on Saturdays and since my job is so stressful that I need the rest. and two that that keeping up after him is grueling enough so why do I want to do more cleaning? Funny man. My darling mother argued that I should be doing something more intellecutal. I was talking to her on the phone and could see her lip curling in disgust in my mind's eye. She thinks I should be sponsoring someone as a catechuemen or arguing in a bible study class. We'll see.

Fr. Richard Sparks---- warning deeply offensive content

Years ago, decades really, a book was published called, Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle. It's still in print and you can buy it from Tan. It was the story of a false priest--- a man who with his communist comrades went to the seminary, got ordained and worked quietly to do evil from the inside of the Church. Fr, Richard Sparks is a perfect example of what can happy when the priest is not 100% orthodox. I'm not saying he's a deliberate anti apostle but if he can get up in public and say foul things like this about the holy mother of Our Lord and Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse, then something has gone seriously wrong in his vocation. Fr. if you do not believe why do you stay in the priesthood? What the heck happened to the Paulists?

This Lent may Our Lady, queen and mother to all priests touch his heart.

Ash Wednesday & bird watching

Rocky and I went to Mass at St.Mathhews Cathedral in DC for Ash Wednedday. We got there early and it was packed to the door. There were three priests, one deacon and a small army of Eurchasristic Ministers. There must have been at least 15 of them. Instead of a priest everyone in my section got a cute 20 something year old girl who really needed to button up her top. Fr. Jameson's homily was not his best but everyone has an off night and I'm sure the poor man was tired.

I love Lent, each blessed one brings me closer to Our Lord and nothing is better than that.



This morning a pair of Canada Geese landed on the roof. They looked so funny up there. Added to the black vultures, American Kestrel and the RedShouldered Hawk that I saw last week this is turning out to be a pretty good bird watching month.

random thoughts for a Monday off from work

• Yesterday morning I heard a mourning dove singing outside my window. It's the first dove I've heard this year. The ice outside is so think I can stand on it without making a dent but Spring is coming.
  
  
  


• I'd love to see Queen Isabella be cannonized. She and her daughter Queen Catherine are two of my great heroines but the human odds against Isabella are high. The whole weak Western world trembles in fear before Islam and the Muslims would probably object to her Cause. A number of Jewish groups would also protest.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• For Lent I've decided to take up the Holy Face devotion and I'm going to start a curse jar. Every time I say something spicy I'll put 50 cents in the jar. At the end of Lent I'll give whatever the amount is to one of my Catholic charities.
  
  
  
• I want to do something at my parish but I'm not sure what. After visiting North Carolina I was struck once again by unfriendly Virginia suburban parishes are. Rocky and I attended our parish for a year before anyone other than Fr. Theoden and Fr. Aragorn spoke to us even to say hello. I don't want to be a greeter---- I'm shy and the whole concept is lame and better suited to a church where they dance with snakes anyway---- but something needs to be done. Unless you've been attending my parish for 15 years or have kids at the school you will be largely ignored and that's not good. I'd like to bring it up with Fr. Theoden but I don't want him to think that I am one of those wretched church ladies that are obsessed with running their own little fiefdoms. Maybe what we need is a sodality. I think I'll get into the habit of saying hello to people and see what happens. Maybe it will spread.
  
  
  
• The annual Catholic Charities gala was held last week and from the published photos I've noticed something: several of the women partygoers were dressed immodestly. In one pic a priest stands looking (too his credit) somewhat uncomfortable while surrounded women in strapless gowns. Why would you go to a Catholic function half naked? Why would you ask a priest to pose with you and your heaving boobs? What the heck is wrong with people?
  

Weep for Orlando and our bishops

In an age when Catholic schools and churches are being closed this bishop decides to give $10,000 to a Protestant sect. It's time to stop giving to the bishops appeals. Hat tip to Some Have Hats.

Carolina Cannonball has a fantastic post on feminism

Sometimes I wish I could give American women a collective smack upside the head. We are the most free-- although we confuse freedom with license, best educated, most pampered women on the face of the earth and yet becuase of the feminist movement many of us are miserable. Carolina Cannonball's post on this topic is awsome.

I've never (even in my wild college years) had any use for feminism. I like men, love being a woman and I know full well that a man's life is not something I want to live. Besides feminism is satanic. Anything that encourages you to worship yourself instead of God comes from the heart of the devil.

random thoughts on a Tuesday evening

• Archbishop Wuerl has written his first pastoral letter on confession. Some people are cheering but it seems tragic to me that the church in America has fallen so low that people are impressed because a bishop tells people to go to confession during Lent. Didn't that used to be a no-brainer?
  
  
• On Amy Welborn's and Mark Shea's blog there is an conversation going on about immigration and comments that Karl Rove supposedly made. I think condemning his alleged comments are hasty and hypocritical. Hasty because we don't really know that he said this. Reporters have been known to lie before. Jayson Blair did it at the New York Times and Janet Cooke did it at the Washington Post.
  
  And it's hypocritical because let's face it : Many Middle and upper class Americans don't like manual labor and would prefer to have someone else do what they consider to be a lowly, nasty job.. When was the last time, outside of the Southa small MidWestern town that you saw a white or black kid bussing tables in a restaurant? When was the last time a middle class white kid knocked on your door and asked if he could cut your grass? Rather than paint our own living rooms a lot of couples are choosing the degrading and potentially dangerous practice of picking men up at the day labor lot next to Home Depot or Lowes and dropping them off on the side of the road when the job is done.

i have returned

It was close to 50 degrees in Carolina so coming back to the ice and miserable cold was no fun. Still, it was a great trip and we had such fun. I saw an American Kestrel fly past our car and when we done furiture shopping we went to a tiny little church for Sunday Mass. It was Christ the King and the Mass was lovely. Later we visited High Point's only other parish, Immaculate Heart of Mary. The people there were so nice and one of the ushers took us on a tour. We were both struck by how friendly everyone was. At my parish if strangers walked in they'd either be ignored or stared at. I think I'll mention that to Fr. Theoden. We could be doing a lot better.

it's my birthday

Today I turn 40. How strange. I don't feel 40. Some days I still feel like 16 year old Scarlet O'Hara at the barbecue. Some days I feel like I'm 21. I just realized that I am now the same age my mother was when my father died. I'm filled with even more respect for her. How did she manage? She had such grace and courage. I don't think I'd be able to cope like she did. Rocky and I are going to North Carolina for a few days to look at furniture. I'm off to check Masstimes.org to see where the Catholic churches are there.


Pray for me, St. Apollonia!
Pray for me, St. Dymphna!
Pray for me St. Therese!

out, out, brief candle

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night...

Anna Nicole Smith died. She led a disgusting life, was a former stripper, a drug addict, a drunk and posed for a pornographic magazine and apparently slept concurrenly with so many men that no -one knows who is her baby's daddy but I feel pity for this lost soul. 39 is too young to die.

random thoughts for a wenesday night

• This strory is so sad. The Holy Father gave a speech in which he stated that homosexuals destroy themselves. His words are revealed in this particular tragedy. Why did these poor silly kids do such a horrible thing to themselves and their families? Why throw their precious lives away and endanger their immortal souls for a teenage crush? May God grant them pardon and peace.
  
  
  
• This morning was so beautiful. I love the sight on fresh snow on the magnolia trees. When I finally got bundled up and made my way outside it looked like the whole world had snow and diamonds blanket on. I saw some tracks in front of our house. They were not squirrel tracks and couldn't have been bunny tracks either. I should have taken pictures. I felt glad to be alive and thanked the Lord for letting me experience His gift of natures beauty.
  Good news. In the DC diocese there will be Confession from 7 to 8 PM every Wednesday for the duration of Lent.
  
  
• Don't go see the movie Horndog. Dakota Fanning's mom may not care about her but the rest of us should. Let's not contribute to the destruction of a child's innocence in the name of entertainment.
  

random thoughts for a cold Saturday morning

• 
  Terry McAuliffe is not going to be a Knight of Malta after all. Good work to all of you Knights or Dames who wrote or called to protest. The blogoshpere is powerful.
  
  
  
  
• Catholic Schools Week is finally over which means I no longer have to see long overwrought posts by bloggers who don't want to send their kids to the local parochial school.
  
  

You can't keep a caveman down for long

Vir Speluncae Catholicus of Lair of the Catholic Cavemen took sick but is slowly but surely on the mend. Thanks be to God.