Happy birthday Rocky

He's 47 today. Seems impossible. He still looks like the 23 year old I married back in '88.


Thank you, St. Martha for your prayers.

the kindest of men goes on vacation with his animal crazy wife

Yesterday I got to feed chickens, share a soulful gaze with a brave lamb, and pet donkeys and a muddy pig. My country girl mother would shake her head but I love animals and Rocky is the kindest, most patient man.... He just looked at me and said " Ah, Dymie, you got to pet a pig."

Later we went bird watching and he spotted three snowy egrets for me and we saw ospreys, cormorants, terns and osprey chicks. Tommorow, we'll do a battlfefield or go to Newport News and look at the grandmother of the modern battleship.

A quote to stop you in your tracks

You're curious and inquisitive, prying and nosey. Aren't you ashamed that even in your defects you are not much of a man. Be a man, and instead of poking into other people's lives, get to know what you really are yourself....

St.Josemaria Escriva

It's funny. I'm not particularly attracted to St. Josemaria. He's like iodine on a cut--- but every now and then I come across some of the things he said and they amaze me. I wonder how I would've felt if I'd gotten one of his letters. Would I have howled in indgignation or cried in the corner or would I have been docile and listened?

Weep no more, my lady

I'll never forget the first time I heard Amy Winehouse sing.  Rocky and I loved road trips with Back to Black blasting from the radio. May God have mercy on her soul.

I believe in the communion of saints...

Pray for us, sweet St. Cecilia. May we count nothing, even our mortal lives more important than the love of Jesus.

Amen

Random thoughts

• Some amateur bloggers, mommy bloggers in particular but I've seen dad's do it too, tell too much about their teen aged or adult children. One Catholic blogger I occasionally read isn't shy about discussing her child's former drug problem. The constant harping on this sad time in their lives leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It comes off as passive aggression. If the kid gave permission to tell this story to the world it's not a betrayal of trust but it since the blogger uses her and the kid's real names and photos this is not helpful to the kid's future. I'm a law librarian. When I'm not looking up laws and government regulations I am sometimes called upon to search for witnesses or to find out what I can on a potential client. I always start with the free publicly available search engines, news and blogs. One day someone like me is going to do a search on this blogger's child and will read about the drug problem. The kid's resume will go straight to the trash.  Thanks a lot mom.

• How long does a person have to be dead before we can speak the truth about them? When Betty Ford died Jill Stanek wrote frankly about Mrs. Ford's abortion activities and did not wish her well. The Anchoress chided Miss Stanek on her blog and I  wonder why she thought Miss Stanek was so wrong. Betty Ford was a big time abortion supporter. How big? Well she was publicly for abortion back in the early 70s and she created a politcal action comittee to funnel money to pro-abortion Republican candidates. Betty may have been a lot of fun at parties and the epitome of charm and refinement  but slaughtering prenatal babies meant a lot to her. I see no reason to be nice about that.

• A Knights of Columbus chapter recently opened up at my parish. The head knight is a good guy and the knights do good work but Rocky won't be joining. Primarily, because he's just too busy and second, because the national leadership of the Knights just aren't what they used to be. Michael Voris has decided to leave the KoC and talks about his reasons here.

•  A friend of mine had to have a colonoscopy and she was very frightened about it. My husband dedicated his weekly  holy hour to praying for her. If you ever get gloomy about the state of the Church or if it ever seems like the people in your diocese are the biggest Candyland Catholics you've ever seen, go to Adoration. Tell you fears, worries and troubles to Jesus and He will restore you. While doing our holy hour we prayed with whites, Hispanic, Asian, old and young people. Seeing those quiet, loving, pious people always gives me such a lift.
  
  I know some bloggers are quite frank about their distaste for pious, devotional people. I can't agree. I'd rather be like the decidely unhip little woman at church who always kneels to the floor when passing the Blessed Sacrament than the cool kid, oh so sophisticated Catholics who mock her and people like her.
  
  
• This is a magnificent painting of St. Claire by Ardith Starostka.
  

*Little Way is absolutely correct. Nobody , except perhaps a humble saint somewhere who was given divine knowledge, knows where Betty Ford ended up. In her last moments she may have repented. However calling foul behavior heroic as some of her hagiographers did is going too far.

Infant of Prague

When I was a little girl at St. Augustine School the sisters had a statue on the Infant in the stairwell. The sight of that two foot tall glass encased statue always cheered me up on bad days and was my confidant on good days.

Irish eyes aren't smiling

It's a cheesy title but it's the first thing that came to mind when I read about a proposed new law in Ireland that would require priests to break the seal of the confessional if a pedophile comes in to confess. Now how on earth do the Irish authorities plan to implement this? I suspect they'll use entrapment. They'll send in people to give false confessions and then arrest the priest if he doesn't call the police. This nightmare could've been avoided by exposing and kicking out bad priests instead of shuffling them around. Was it indifference, blackmail or silent consent that caused so many bishops to fail in their duty?  Now we're stuck with a nightmare that will never go away. Twenty years from now, provided pedophilia hasn't been legalized by then, people will still be making accusations and whether they have a shred of evidence to back them up or not, they'll be believed.

St. John Nepomucene, martyr of the confessional, who laid down your life rather than betray a penitent, pray for your brother priests. They do not face being thrown into the Moldau river but they do face the horror of prison.

Virgin of Sorrows

When I was a little girl my godmother took me to St. Mary's in DC. They have a lovely pieta and at it's base were the words, "Is your sorrrow like unto my sorrow?" Of course at three or four I didn't understand but I was deeply moved all the same.

a fine artist

Noah Buchanan did two paintngs for the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Wisconsin. One is a beautiful depiction of St. Maria Goretti and the other is the best Divine Mercy image I've ever seen.  You can see them on  his site.

random thoughts on a hot afternoon

• You don't make yourself seem bigger by cutting someone else down.  
  

• In 1994, Humberto Leal raped, tortured and finally killed 16 year old Adria Sauceda. He was executed for that crime. One of his biggest supporters was Sr. Germaine Corbin. I don't mind Sr. Germaine visiting prisoners but I do wonder if she ever thought to go sit and grin with Adria's parents. Probably not.
  
  
• My father-in-law mentioned that during the Vietnam war a lot of college boys hid out in divinity school. They were Protestants. Did any Catholics go to the seminary with the same thing in mind and how many of them got ordained? We'll never know.

• Last month I read somewhere that women should marry less attractive men if they want adultery proof marriages. That's ridiculous and must have written by someone who knows nothing about men and women. Your husband may have nose like a baked potato and be skinny as a twig but if he's a good man, exudes confidence and masculinity and can provide a secure home some other woman will be attracted to him.  If he's happy in the marriage the attention won't matter to him. If he's not happy--- well  then you may have a problem, but it won't have anything to do with his looks.
• I  read a post on a British writer's blog about NFP. He admitted that because his wife's body just doesn't follow the standards he's been forced into celibacy for the better part of this year. I'll probably make  NFP fans angry but that doesn't seem like a healthy way to live to me.

• Please pray for Hilary White. She's walking in the lonesome valley now. St. Peregrine, dear saint whom no-one really wants to have to pray to, please remember Hilary.

• On the next season of the science fiction series Torchwood, a main character is a sympathetic pedophile. Pay attention to this. We (ordinary American society) are being softened up. 

A tragedy

If this is true then a very great tragedy has taken place and is continuing to take place. Father denies it but things don't look good at all. The thing that really bothers me is the unbridled glee that some bloggers are showing.  I've been thinking of Psalm 51 all afternoon.

Virgen Blanca

I love this 12th century alabaster statue of Our Lady and Our Lord. They both look so contented with each other.

Handmaids of the Precious Blood

This order of nuns  is dedicated to praying for priests. Through their external apostalates they invite priests, nuns and lay people to join them in their prayer and sacrifice.

Nasty Nellie

I don't like Rod Dreher. He reminds me of Nellie Olsen from Little House on the Prarie. But I feel a little (just a very little) sorry for him. He left the Catholic Church in a fury and went to the Orthodox. Instead of enjoying Orthodoxy he's like the vengeful man who finds a hole in his enemy's  tent and urinates into it occassionally.  I'm not entirely an Archbishop Dolan fan but His Excellency is not to blame for New York State's homosexual marriage fall. The seeds of disaster were already sown long ago, as I've said before.