if girls only knew

 A few months ago I was standing on a bus and noticed the two young guys sitting in front me. The very foolish girlfriend of one of them had sent photos of herself in various stages of undress to his phone. And what was he doing? Showing them to his buddy while the two of them laughed. I felt sorry for the girl.  Hopefully those photos didn't end up being seen by her whole school but she's already been degraded the moment she  stripped off and tried to imitate a prostitute.

She'd been told by the movies, the magazines, the TV shows and the teen novels that being sexually loose was the only way to keep a guy. She's probably never been told about mortal sin, chastity or honor by anyone she respects. Some people carry on about sexting and cell phones but it's not the phone that's at fault. 20 years ago girls were taking photos of themselves with their handy Polaroid instant camera and giving it to boyfriends who either promptly showed them to friends or tossed them in a drawer where they were later discovered by someone else.

We've lost the culture and the kids are suffering because of it.

What have you done for your priest today?

Have you prayed for him? Have you fasted for him? Did you say a nice word to him after Mass? For the love of the Man of Sorrows have you ever done anything but complain that he's not hip enough, funny enough, or social enough?

If  you have a devout, holy priest or even a pretty good bread and butter priest, thank the Lord and give him a hand.

It's seder time again

Every Lent some dear, nice Catholic announces that they're going to either a Christian seder at the parish hall or visiting Jewish friends and seeing a real seder so they can get closer to Jesus. Something about this always seemed a bit off to me  but like most Catholics my age I wasn't taught enough about traditional Church teaching and could never articulate why Christianized seders just didn't seem right. If you've ever been in that spot,  this talk by a priest posted at the very fine site, Audio Sancto. can help.

High Anxiety

My mother is frustrated with the slowness of her recovery and she hates being dependant on me and Rocky. I stopped by her home on the way home on Friday and took care of a few things. She was anxious and because the codeine she was prescribed makes her break out in hives she's not using it and is in pain. On top of that street crime has gone way up in my old neighborhood. Mama has always been very careful on the street but now, moving slowly with her cane she's concerned that she might be an easy target for some lowlife.

I'm worried and my project this year is to get her out of DC and into a safe, quiet building in Virginia.

Holy Mother, seat of wisdom. Show me what to do. Protect my dearest Mama and be a mother to her. Remember of most compassionate mother, that it's never been known that anyone who sought your help was left unaided. Like St. Catherine Laboure I throw myself at your knee and would lay my head in your lap. Amen.

A really lovely blog

Vultis Christi written by Fr. Mark Kirby.

A prayer for priests from my dear St. Therese

O Holy Father, may the torrents of love flowing from the sacred wounds of Thy Divine Son bring forth priests like unto the beloved disciple John who stood at the foot of the Cross; priests: who as a pledge of Thine own most tender love will lovingly give Thy Divine Son to the souls of men.
May Thy priests be faithful guardians of Thy Church, as John was of Mary, whom he received into his house. Taught by this loving Mother who suffered so much on Calvary, may they display a mother’s care and thoughtfulness towards Thy children. May they teach souls to enter into close union with Thee through Mary who, as the Gate of Heaven, is specially the guardian of the treasures of Thy Divine Heart.
Give us priests who are on fire, and who are true children of Mary, priests who will give Jesus to souls with the same tenderness and care with which Mary carried the Little Child of Bethlehem.
Mother of sorrows and of love, out of compassion for Thy beloved Son, open in our hearts deep wells of love, so that we may console Him and give Him a generation of priests formed in thy school and having all the tender thoughtfulness of thine own spotless love.’

Amen

Disgusted

What are we doing in Libya?

The Gospel for today

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.

Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give and gifts will be given to you;

a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.


For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”

You can't get any more manly than St. Joseph

It's pretty hard being a boy these days. On one hand you have the emasculators trying to turn you into a limp, pretty pushover and on the other hand you have guys who claim that anybody who doesn't have hundreds of women in his past is a beta male and not worthy to hang out with real men.  All of this is piffle. You can't get any more manly than holy St. Joseph.

Domine, non sum dignus!

Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

The Centurian recognized the Truth when the wisest men in the Temple did not. The Church remembers his words forever.

Institute of Catholic Culture

On April 3rd, at 7:30 PM there will be solemn vespers and benediction in the Tridentine form at St. Mary's in Alexandria, VA. Fr. Scalia, who we nicknamed Fr. Aragon when he was still at St. Rita's will be presiding. I'm looking forward to seeing something I've never seen before.

Martin von Feuerstein

Years ago Rocky and I walked into St. James in Falls Church, Virginia and I saw  amazing Stations of the Cross. I tried to find out who the painter was but no-one knew. Later we visited another church in the Ricmond diocese and they had the same Stations but in mosaics. I kept looking on Google and I finally found out who the painter was. Martin von Feurstein was a famous artist in Germany. His art is in serveral German churches and cathdrals. He was also an art professor and a serious Catholic. This painting is a self portrait that shows his decision to dedicate his talents to the service of Christ.

The Japanese have been impressive

We haven't heard any reports of looting, rapes, or anyone blocking roads or shooting at aid workers.

Sorrowful Mysteries

Agony in the Garden

Scourging at the Pillar

Crowning with thorns

Jesus takes the cross*

The Crucifixion

* I especially love the Martin Feurstein's painting of Jesus taking the cross. It's stylized of course, but just look at His glowing face. He's reaching out to embrace the cross as if it were a beautiful thing instead of an object of horror. The priests, pharisees, and the Romans thought they were in charge but they knew nothing. Our Lord laid down His life  for love of sinners and three days later He took it up again. He was in charge and this painting does a good job showing it.

Random thoughts

• I've read a couple of blog entries on the Ash Wednesday  MassFlash mob that seemed to think the spectacle was cute. It wasn't. The purpose of Mass is adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and reparation..Anything else no matter how "charming" or "relevant" is just straw for gold.

• Hilary White, one of my favorite  bloggers has cancer. In your charity please pray for her. She's a peppery and tough woman but this is a hard blow.
  
• In Texas a pack of 20 boys and adult males raped an 11 year old girl. I realize that there are men who hate women and some of them have good reasons. I have an uncle whose treacherous wife divorced him right after she graduated from college and left him with nothing but a few pieces of furniture that he owned before the marriage. She took the kids, found their care to be too much for her gave them back to him but he still has to pay her alimony. I realize that the feminist movement unleashed horrors that we can't put back in the box. I have an inkling of understanding of what it must be like for most black boys raised by a young and foolish single mother who was herself probably ill used by an older man. The most dangerous person in a kid's life is his mom's new man. That new man may last a weekend or he may hang around abusing the kids for years. This is so common that cops and CPS workers call it mommy's boyfriend syndrome. And I know our society is so busy cheering on the single mom (You go, girl!) that there seems to be no place for the adult survivors of mom's boyfriends to vent. All that is true and terrible but why, oh why take all that rage out on an eleven year old girl?
  Lord have mercy. St. Maria Goretti, St. Germaine, St. Dymphna, Blessed Alexandrina, Blessed Karolina Kozkowna, and Blessed Albertina pray for this poor child. St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Salvo and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati pray for all the angry, neglected boys who think that women are the enemy. Oh Blessed Virgin, be their example of womanhood!

• This lad has decided to fast all Lent on just beer. Bless his heart. I hope someone gets a photo of what he loooks like by Easter.
  
• This Lent I'm going to do a devotion that I'd never even heard of before. I'm reading the seven penitential psalms every day.

Mater Dolorosa

Shahbaz Bhatti

His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'

St. Katherine Drexel, a magnificent woman

St. Katherine was not only a holy woman but she was a truly magnificent one as well. She was loving towards and used her own money to help two of the most despised groups in America at the time: Indians and blacks.  She was a great friend to Fr. Tolton, the first openly black priest in America. When she created Xavier University, a black college, many whites in Louisiana were horrified. She was opposed and threatened on occasion but the hard headed little lady from Pennsylvania kept right on.

In memoriam

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
 
Two American airmen were murdered in Frankfurt, Germany by a Muslim from Kosovo. The coverage in the media has been pathetic. We know more about what's on what's left of Charlie Sheens' brain than we know about the killer of our fellow Americans.

Thank you, St. Alphonsus!

My mother had surgery on her arthritic knee this afternoon and it went beautifully. The surgeon was delighted with the results. Rocky and I are very thankful.