Living with infertility. This thing that can not live yet never dies

This was a bad day. The next person who tells me that I'm lucky not to have children is getting a punch in the gut.

Katherine of Aragon, pray for me. St. Joan of Valois, pray for me. St. Anne, St. Gianna, Blessed Elizabeth Leseur  pray for me. Sweetest Heart of Mary give me strength.

a palate cleanser

A sister of the Religieuses Victimes du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, France, takes her final vows of chastity, obedience, poverty and enclosure..

When a civilization falls

A lot of nice, well meaning people in the blogosphere are aghast because gay "marriage" has been legalized in New York state. To be honest, I feel like asking these people where the hell they've been for the last twenty or thirty years. Have they been so self absorbed that they havne't seen what's been going around them?

Marriage was already befouled a long time ago and heterosexuals did it.

Women divorce their inoffensive husbands for not being exciting enough and the rest of the world cheers them on, "You go, girl!"  Men dump their wives for a younger, prettier replacement and the the rest of us murmur "Well, he has a right to be happy." Generations of children grew up in broken homes and most Americans not only ignored their emotional and physical suffering but also had the gall to insist that the kids were alright.

Adulterers have been portrayed sympatheticly in films as early as the 1930s. From the 50s onward movie stars  had marital adventures that were nothing more than  a sick joke and the majority of our parents  and grandparents ate it up. "Sophisticated," married men subscibed to Playboy magazine and it wasn't too terribly uncommon to find it in their homes. Married women shamelessly read Cosmopolitan and took it's editor's vile advice to heart. Our generation is no better. Pick up any celebrity magazine and what do you see? Stories on who's cheating with whom and the American public can't get enough. Listen to the radio and what do you hear? Filth mostly. Every other song is about graphic fornication or adultery. Our civilization has fallen so low that it's like we're lying in the gutter looking up through a thick layer of toxic mud. All the poisons lurking in the mud are hatching out. Militant homosexuality is one of those poisons.

It's like Frankenstein's monster. Baron Victor Frankenstein had the gifts of freedom, wealth and brilliance but misused them and produced an ugly, homicidal "baby" who horrified him and destroyed everything that Victor loved. Militant homosexuality is the vicious monster baby of heterosexual decadence.

So what's gonna happen? I see two possibilities. Civil marriage is not the end game. Come on, you know that. The leaders of this movement have a plan and it's not about mere tolerance. Eventually two men or two women  will show up in a parish and demand a wedding and the government will back them up. That sounds farfetched but if you went back in time to 1911, and told people that aboriton would be legalized they would've called you insane. If you went back to 1957, and told people that a half black man was one day going to be president they would've assumed you'd been drinking. Impossible things are made possible.

The other possibility is that nationwide financial collaspe will interrupt the game altogether. If ordinary Americans are faced with worries about food and how to avoid a massive crime wave nobody is going to give a rip about a lot of things that matter now. Either way interesting times are coming.

Pre-Cana follies

I've said before that I have a low opinion of the usefulness of pre-Cana classes. Considering that Catholics get divorced at the same rate as unchurched people and Protestants the programs don't seem to do much but make money.
 I just read about a 78 year old Lutheran man who wanted to marry an 60 plus year old Catholic woman. They were told that they had to take the pre-Cana class or there could be no wedding and they balked. The wedding took place in the man's Lutheran church. 

On one hand, I suspect that the Lutheran  really didn't want a Catholic wedding anyway and the pre-Cana requirement was a perfect excuse to get out of it, or the couple didn't want to shell out two hundred bucks from their fixed retiree incomes. On the other hand, insisting that an elderly man and a woman long past menopause have to sit through weeks of lectures on natural family planning, budgeting, and the importance of working together is stupid. At their ages this couple surely knows more about the art of living and loving than the instructors and I think I'd much rather sit with them and ask their advice than pay for anything the instructors would have to say.

I used to think the pre-Cana classes in America were the worst but after reading this English blogger's witty comments I guess things are rough all over.

St. John the Baptist

John the Baptist must have been amazing. He told the pharisees and King Herod exactly what they were. He didn't give a rip about what people thought and hated sin. I've  heard people try use the Baptist as an excuse for coming to Mass looking like they've been planting stink weeds and as a symbol of homelessness and it always makes me want to laugh. The Baptist wasn't a lazy slob and he wasn't a drunkard, drug addict or insane. He was, Our Lord, said, "the greatest man born of woman." What a tribute! He lived a tough life, an extreme life, yes but one that many holy known and unknown hermits would've understood completely.

Mighty St. John, the son of Elizabeth and Zarchariah, cousin and forerunner to Our Lord, pray for us. 

I lost respect for some professional bloggers this week.

He who honors a priest honors Christ; he who insults a priest insults Christ.

St. John Chrysostom

I love you, Little King

Another German Madonna and Holy Child painting

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Oh Lord have mercy on your priests

Today's news

Grief

Madonna and Child

Random thoughts

• I saw that the scheduled pro-homosexuality  Mass that was supposed to be celebrated at St. Cecilia's church in Boston was canceled and apparently a lot of people are in a snit about it.  That's a pity. The Lamb of God shed His blood for the sins of the whole world. All our of sins, both subtle and gross were on His mind when He gave up His Spirit and died. There really wasn't a need for this separate Mass any more than there is a need for a special adulterer's Mass. 

•  This is stupid. Just plain idiotic,ugly and sacrilegious.

• So,  my fellow American Catholics have the wheels come off the bus? As Diana Ross and the Supremes once sang, have we reached the beginning of the end? Michael Voris seems to think so.
  
  
• Rocky's mother is in Walter Reed hospital. Oh St. Peregrine, please pray for her.

A quote for the ages

"'Purity?' they ask. And they smile. They are the ones who go on to marriage with
worn-out bodies and disillusioned souls."
- St. Josemaria Escriva




St. Josemaria is not my favorite saint but he had a way of cutting to the quick when he wanted to make a point. I read this years ago I never forgot it. Every parish that has a young adult group should print  it on a bookmark and hand out to the members.

Come Holy Spirit

Why I'd never be a feminist

Have you ever noticed that feminists don't seem to have much to say in defense of women who aren't their class?  They don't have much to say about the most piggish of men so long as these powerful congressmen support abortion, their dark sacrament.  Ugh. I want no part of them.

June is the month of the Sacred Heart

Heart of Jesus, pierced for my transgressions, have mercy on me, a sinner!

This is beautiful

A novice takes the veil.   May God bless this young lady.

Don’t believe the stereotype.

Ever notice how we are constantly being told that Latinos are the future of the Church because American Catholics are lazy lumps of lukewarm offal? Well, I’ve always thought that patter was so much horse manure. 

According to this article very few young Latino men in the States are going to the seminary. I’m not surprised. Protestantism and secularism have made huge gains in Latin America and the Mexican Church in particular is facing some serious problems. Despite what Fr. Skippy says, not all Latinos are devout Catholics.

Another example of Catholic stereotyping is the Malta fantasy. We’re told that Malta is a Catholic Shangri-La. Well a majority of the populace just voted for legalized divorce.  All the examples the professional Catholics use to shame us boring pewsitters fall apart upon even casual inspection.

Beautiful Maria of Regensburg

This unsual and precious painting is in the Collegiate Church of St. John in Regensburg, Germany. The Holy Father was a professor in Regensburg and probably saw this painting of Our Lord and Our Lady everytime he went to Mass.

Oh good grief

I saw this on Fr. Z’s blog. For pity’s sake folks. If a woman wants to veil at Mass (I do for the Novus Ordo and the TLM) and/or adoration that’s her business. Mind yours.  She is not necessarily being holier than thou. Some of us do it as a penance and if she is showing off the Lord will deal with her later.

Jack Kevorkian died

How odd that a man who so enjoyed killing the pysically and mentally ill decided to die in his hospital bed of natural sickness. It's rather like the environmentalists who fly their jets all over the world and live in huge mansions yet begrudge the rest of us a car and home bigger than a hut. In the end he was a hypocrite as well as a creep.

Ascension at St. Rita's

Ascension Thurdsay at St. Rita's was beautiful. We had a sung Tridentine. Fr. Eagle had four altar boys and a very, very good schola. I'm always so excited when we go to the TLM. It's just plain amazing seeing little kids so quiet and attentive. And the people at the Mass are fascinating, college kids, young couples, young professionals and  people from around the world were there last night. Two old men sat in front of me. One had a shiny new missal and his friend had a missal so old and worn it was just barely held together by the sewn binding.
One thing about the high sung TLM, is that you can't let your mind wander. The priest  is constantly in motion and he's continuing his prayers to God on our behalf while the the choir is singing. I've been experimenting with differnet strategies for keeping up with Fr. Eagle and last night I followed the missal until  the Sanctus and after that I concentrated totally on the altar. It seemed to work.

Ken Jan Woo

Ken Jan Woo, is a highly talented Chinese born artist who created the magnificent icons at the Our Savior's Church  in New York City. His icon of St. John is one of the best I've ever seen. Too many artists make St. John look like a little girl. Woo's St. John is a young man. I also love his St. Joan of Arc , his St. Augustine of China and his Blessed Mother Teresa.  The next time I'm in New York I will definitely take a cab to see the church and  to look at the icons of Our Lord and the painting of Our Lady. There is so much lousy religious art on the market and in our churches that we really need to support beauty and talent when we find it.