Hail Mary

AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Random thoughts

*It's a heat advisory day today so I'm staying inside and enjoying the comforts of modern life. When Rocky comes home from work we may head to the Potomac river. In the meantime, thank you Mr. Carrier, Mr. Crapper, Mr. Farnsworth and good ole Mr. Edison, may you all rest in peace.


*After reading about St. Philip Neri I'm curious. How does an oratory work? Is it treated  like a parish or a monastery?

* If you've ever read the Pieta prayer book you've probably seen  excerpts from Mutter Vogel's Worldwide Love. Mother Vogel was a German woman who had many visits from Our Lord and Our Lady. Our Lord supposedly told her many things but the oft quoted words in the Pieta prayer book concerned criticism of priests. A number of people on various blogs have claimed that there's no evidence that Mutter Vogel existed.

I'm a librarian. Looking for stuff is my business so I went searching for Mother Vogel's book for myself. Google is great and I love it but it's not the end of online research by a long shot. After checking WorldCat, the Library of Congress, German Amazon, German books on mystics and a few German blogs I discovered that the Pieta editors spelled Mutter Vogel's name wrong. It's actually Vogl and the book doesn't seem to have been published in English. I then looked for Mutter Vogls weltweite Liebe  and learned that her name was Katharina and she was a Franciscan Third Order member. She did not publish the book herself but seems to have reported the details of her visions only to her superior(s). Someone named A. M. Weigl wrote the book so anyone searching for Vogel as the author wouldn't have found a thing. Katharina Vogl  died in 1956, and her cause for beatification has been opened.

Memorial Day

Do you think that any of the Catholics who publicly wailed for Osama binLadin, (a man who would've cheerfully slit their throats)  will remember that Memorial Day has nothing to do with barbeque or linen sales?

When monks go bad

Thank you, thank you Holy Father for supressing the abbey of Santa Croce. Without discipline things fall apart.

Pray for Joplin, Missouri

So far 118 people are dead. Sudden, unprepared death is a terrible thing. People go on and on about man made global warming but when tornado season hits we are all reminded that mankind is puny before the full force of nature. 

St. Mary's Church, Joplin MO


Eternal rest grant unto all those lost, Oh Lord. May perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

My Jesus, mercy!

Oh Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted pray for them.

Mass was horrible today.

How bad was it? Well, Rocky got food poisoining at a pot luck at work and there was no way we could make it to St. Rita's on time so we went to Queen of Apostles. We ended up sitting behind two little girls who were so far out of control that I found myself wondering if they were being raised by dingoes.

I don't feel like laughing

A lot of people are mocking the poor souls who believe that the rapture of the just is going to take place today. I can't. Yeah, these people are ridiculous at first glance and yes, even though they are just a small Protestant sect they reflect badly on Christians in general but I'll bet  many of them are kind, decent sorts. They are going to be heartbroken and humiliated before their children and neighbors come Sunday. I'm sure that many, the kids in particular  will lose their faith in God. That's a tragedy because I haven't seen too many efforts by Catholics to reach the people trapped in charismatic and evanelical sects.
May God send a  a brave missonary to California  to lead them to the barque of Peter.

Random thoughts after the migraine has faded

 Yesterday my head hurt so long and so bad that I was wishing that I could throw up because I usually feel better afterwards. I love Spring but it triggers horrid headaches.

• My mother was a housekeeping supervisor in a big DC hotel for 30 years. She could tell you some shocking stories about how rich and not so rich people behave when they are away from home and have someone else to clean up for them. Once when she was in her 20s she went to a guest's room who had called for  turndown service. When she got there he made an obscene suggestion and she angrily left. The man was told to leave the hotel and did.
  
  It makes me so angry when I read on other blogs comments like "Why would a rich man like that bother with a lowly maid?" and "She set him up for money, "Why is a man of his breeding being held in Riker's Island?"  A maid is not a slave or something so beneath a guest that she's not even worth the notice one would take of an animal that happened by.  Apparently in France people are aghast that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund was arrested on the word of a mere maid. Well, as President Sarkozy pointed out in America we do take rape accusations seriously.
  
  A lot of bloggers (Catholics and others) bitch and moan about America and seem to wish we were more like Europe but I thank God that we are not.

• I wonder why anyone gives a flying hoot  what Stephen Hawking says? The poor man hasn't had an idea since the 80s, 70s!

• The people pursuing the Arnold Schwarzenegger adultery story are simply evil. They are ruining an innocent child's life. They've printed the name of the child's mother. They've posted photos of her and  slightly blurry photos of the boy on the Internet. They've said what town he lives in and posted a photo of his house. I expect they'll do more. All for the love  of gossip, which is a sin. The poor boy is a private citizen and should not be exposed to ridicule because of the sins of his parents.
  
• I pray that Hilary White's cancer treatment goes well. I wish she had  mother or a sturdy old aunt to look after her.

St. Mary's and St. Michael's

Rocky took the weekend off and we day tripped both days. On Saturday we went to Richmond and after the touring and shopping we attended the vigil Mass at St. Mary's. It was very strange. There is no sign out front and nothing to indicate that you've walked up to a Catholic church. It looks like a  cross between the Mormon visitor center in Maryland and St. Bede's in Williamsburg with a large lobby. The decor is a an unsusual but striking fantasy blend of Celtic and art deco.

On one side of the building is a beautiful light filled chapel and on the other is a small adoration chapel. They have a lovely statue of Mary but it's hidden away near the restrooms and there is no image of her in the santuary area. The main church has stadium seating and no kneelers. We couldn't find the Blessed Sacrament and eventually we guessed that Our Lord remains in the chapel.The homily was very good but the whole experience felt like a trip to an Episcopalian church instead of a Catholic one.

On Sunday we went to Southern Maryland. We drove to Point Lookout and enjoyed the water and birds, including two bald eagle sightings. We visited St. Michael's church in Ridge, MD. It's a doll house sized  little church with one of the most moving adoration chapel's I've ever seen.  After the disappointing St. Mary's, St. Michael's was a palate cleanser.

Random thoughts now that Blogger is back

*Yesterday I came across two  delightful blogs, Widow's Weeds.  and New Catacombs that I will definitely visit again.

*Last night Fr. Bear said the TLM. He has such a pleasant, calm voice and he's so easy to follow in the missal. St. Rita's has the TLM every Thursday at 7:30.

*Remember all the idiots who cheered the so-called Arab Spring? Patriarch Gregorios III would like to have a word with them. And Bishop Antonios isn't too thrilled either.

*John Zmirak seems to have kicked the hornet's nest. The response he gets should be interesting.

*The Great Santini is on HBO tonight. I can't watch it without getting sad. My Father-in-law is Bull Meecham without the charm.

Did Archbishop Marini lie?

Former Papal MC, Archbishop Piero Marini has written a book, Io sono un Papa amabile. Giovanni Paolo II, in which he states that Blessed John Paul fully approved of the offbeat liturgies that Marini was in charge of. Father Z. and his most of readers are dismissive.  Is Fr. Z saying in a round about way that an archbishop is lying to sell books? I know many people can't stand Marini but let's get real. Do you really believe that the pope put up with Masses he couldn't stand for two decades? That's absurd.

King of Kings from 1927

The actor playing Our Lord was actually older than the actress playing Mary and it shows  and there are a few other little flaws but overall this was a beautiful movie.

Happy Mother's Day

Mary Virginia Merrick-- one of the greatest women you've never heard of

Mary Virginia Merrick, known as Miss Mary to her many friends wanted to be a nun but after a terrible accident left her in a wheelchair she found another way to serve Jesus. She founded the Christ Child Society and helped untold numbers of poor kids get a meal, a respite from the city, shoes and a safe place to stay. She died in 1955, after years of pain and grace. Her cause for cannonization has recently been opened.

Magadelens and charity girls

This is beautiful. I normally don't read the Abigail's Alcove blog because it's a mommy blog and well, mommy blogs depress me, especially around Mother's Day but  for some reason I looked at it today. I wonder how many of the professed Christian female bloggers who criticized Kate Middleton were once charity girls themselves. For the sake of dinner and a movie and the fleeting feeling that she's one of the cool people,  many a young woman has done as much as a prostitute would for cash. So who's worse?

a thought for today

There was a kindly gentleman who used to chat with me every morning in the line for the bus to the Pentagon. He worked there and  I continued on to the train station. He was a few months away from retirement and was dreaming of going home to Mississippi. After 9/11 I never saw him again.  That dear man from the magnolia state has been on my mind all day.