2011 blogville standouts

The most useful blog I've seen this year
Traditional Latin Mass in Maryland


 Saddest
These Stone Walls

Most disappointing 
 The Catholic blogs who were assimilated by Patheos


The post I definitely wish I hadn't read
I have a sense of humor... a weird one but it does exist. However, jokes about the Triune God and Our Lady are off limits. This thing isn't a lighthearted joke. It is  a mockery of the Consecration and that's not funny.




Most interesting photos
Orbis Secundus


Bravest
Orwell's Picnic.


Cutest
Crechemania and Catholic Icing

Christ be praised!

Today my mother and I got a wonderful gift for the great Feast of Christmas. The nursing home called and they've accepted my dear uncle. They want us to bring him on Friday. Back in November I made two vows for when this day came  and I look forward to going to the Holy Stairs shrine at St. Patrick's in Pittsburgh to fulfill them. Oh Christ be praised. Thank you, Lord.

Ascend to Heaven sons and daughters of St. Stephen

After 9/11 President Bush said that Islam was a religion of peace. I suspect that he said that because his advisors feared that the average American was going to go ape on the nearest Muslim. That was wrong and an undestimation of the average American but the "religion of peace" thing stuck and irritates like a rash. Tell the marytred Nigerian Catholics blown up in the middle of Midnight Mass or tell the Iraqi Christians that.

Tell us to remember that we are civilized, tell us that we are better than our enemies, tell us to remember the Golden Rule. Remind people that the Muslim family next door is harmless.  Say anything you want but I don't want to hear that "religion of peace" stuff anymore.

Well that was interesting.

Christmas Mass was ....interesting. The cantor's vocals were lovely. We have a fine organist. The church was packed. Even though the windows were open it was hot and well, funky. A surprisising number of guys in their haste to get to Mass forgot their deordorant or maybe it was soap. One dude's natural scent just about made me swoon during the great Communion shuffle.  Concentrating was hard. I've never really paid the Christmas and Easter people much attention before but I now understand why friction rises. Folks, when you come late don't get huffy if the 90 year old couple arent' thrilled by you climbing over them to get to a spot and don't ask they lady in the wheelchair to move so you and your loved ones can sit together. Oh and if you must feed  your child would you please not give him buttery stuff that crumbles all over the pew. The poor man next to you didn't deserve the grease stains you left behind.

Father reminded us earlier in the week to be nice to our guests because our bad example could send a sensitive soul from the Church forever but honestly some of those people didn't make it easy.

Felix Dies Nativitatis!

Merry Christmas, ya'all!



Bad homilies and the Holy Family

One of the most annoying things about going to Mass in December is listening to homilies that insult St. Joseph. He was not a starry eyed ninny. He did not just load Mary on to a donkey and drift out to Bethlehem. They probably traveled in a caravan with other kinfolk from their village. It's possible, some theologians believe, that knowing that the messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem that Mary and Joseph had even decided that they would move there permanantly.

St. Jospeh did not come to Bethlehem to beg. He wasn't running from Nazareth. He came to pay his taxes. He was not a homeless man. Mary was not an unwed mother. I'm so sick of that kind of talk. He also, being a skilled artisan had pretty good prospects for finding a job if he and Mary had decided to stay in Bethlehem.  There was a huge government project going on not too far away. Vile King Herod was building himself  a tomb and  needed lots of carpenters.  Please, please no more hip, relevant homilies making the Holy Family stand ins for whatever cause is in vouge at the time.

Christ Almighty

I could look at this for hours.

my favorite nativity

Infant of Prague

Sweetest little King, have mercy on me.

Precious, shining Boy who came forth to die a horrible death, have mercy on me.

Joy of Heaven and earth, have mercy on me.

Random thoughts

• I can't stand Patheos. It's like the Borg on Star Trek. It takes fun bloggers and turns them into drones. Being with Patheos has  completely ruined the once delightful Anchoress and I just hope that Crescat doesn't change.

• I don't understand the whole Anglican Ordinariate thing. Why can't people just convert on their own instead of the whole parish, "priest" (I thought the Anglican orders were invalid? Did this change?) and the building coming over with their own version of the Mass. Why not go to RCIA--wretched as it usually is and be done with it? I'm not knocking the Ordinariate. I just don't understand why it is necessary and why the Anglican patrimony is supposed to be such a boon for the Church. The Anglican church was founded because Henry VIII was a vicious lustful  sociopath who wanted a new woman and discarded his  devoted wife, only legitimate child, religion, faithful friends and servants and went on a killing spree.
  
  It's confusing because the same commentators who go into raptures about the beauty of the Anglo-Catholic service  and who hope if will either influence the Novus Ordo  or that they will  soon be able to take refuge in an approved  Ordinariate Mass would eat a brick before they'd go to a TLM.

• I really miss the Gregorian Rite Catholic blog. Prima's wit was like an electric knife slicing through blubber.

• Dear bishops who signed their names to this letter, I suggest that the next time you want want money for something in your diocese you ask donations from outside the country because you don't seem to give a hoot about the laws, and very real concerns of your American flock who have to deal with the problems massive illegal immigration brings.  

• If Youth only knew, if Age only could.... Hilary White has written something with painful, avert your eyes honesty  about the bad gambles  girls make when we're young  because all the cool people told us that we must or be losers and how we can suffer will the debt comes due.

• I  read this  post from the Vestal morons blog which uses Star Wars as a metaphor for Vatican II and what happened after.  I think he's wrong about a couple of things. Padme Amidala was a passive aggressive  idiot so she can't represent the pre-concilar Church and Obi Wan certainly wasn't Paul VI. Jar Jar Binks on the other hand, oh yeah, the young writer is absolutely spot on about Jar Jar.

• There is a candy store near where I work that sells blasphemous "humor" items. Their Christmas display this year features revolting images of Jesus and Mary on various things that I will not attempt to describe. The owner of the shop must really hate Catholics. He or she always has something mocking nuns or priests in the window. I can't imagine how much time he or she takes to find all this stuff. For this reason I refuse to buy anything from the store or even go in there. The candy is supposed to be really good but as long as Christians make excuses and buy from people like the owner of this shop we are feeding the beast.
  
  
• Speaking of work I wish I had the senority and the nerve to pull this off:

Our Lady of Good Children

The Return

This painting can be found at Holy Innocents Church in New York. The artist had just attended Mass when he noticed a young soldier kneeling at the foot of a crucifix. He was so moved that he started work on this painting.

St. Joseph

St. Joseph, the dear, quiet man who was chosen to be Mary's husband and a father to Our Lord. He is the patron saint against doubt, cabinetmakers, Canada, carpenters, China, confectioners, craftsmen, dying people, engineers, families, fathers, house hunters, Korea, laborers, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam and pioneers.  He is the patron of the universal Church.

The Visitation and the Magnificat

Random thoughts on modesty and other stuff

• Thank you all for your kind words and prayers for my poor aunt, Emmabelle.
  
  
  
• I was reading a complaint on another blog about how hard it is to find modest clothes and I thought, 'silly you'. Modesty is actually pretty easy.  I have a dress that looks fine when I'm standing but shows too much when I sit. So I put a t shirt under it and no-body sees a thing. Simple.
  
  There is no law that says you have to buy mini skirts and if your regular skirt is a little too short put on black tights. Instead of buying low rider jeans that expose your naked backside  buy some relaxed fit Wranglers or Faded Glorys and be done with it. You don't have to dress like an Amish woman ---but oddly enough one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen was a barefoot young Amish mother walking down a dirt road--- and you don't have dress like a Mormon breakaway cult member to be modest. 
  
  I do not wish to support Mormonism in any way, and I don't want to be on mailing list or get a visit form Mormon elders so I refuse to buy from LDS owned stores but mainstream Mormon women, I have to admit, do a great job of looking good without looking sleazy and unlike Catholics they've actually gone into business providing gorgeous clothes instead of just complaining. 
  
  
  
• You know how a puppy or dog will roll over on their stomachs before a dominant dog in a submission gesture? That's what this was.
  
  
  
• Speaking of dogs, if that nice boy, Tim Tebow were to torture one to death, drive drunk, shoot off a gun in a nightclub, get accused of rape....twice, all the people who rag on him now would be fans. I wish the kid was Catholic. Can you imagine the exploding heads?
  
  
  
• The situation with my uncle's dementia is getting worse and none of the nursing homes I'm pursuing have made acceptance decisions yet and I've become terribly disappointed in his doctor. My mother and I are so tired. I just want to sit on the floor and cry sometimes. And then my fighting spirit comes back. When this is all over and he is in a safe place I can rest until then I just have to follow Winston Churchill's advice and keep on going.
  
  
  
• Thank God the morning after pill is not going to be sold over the counter. Can you imagine what would have happened on daily basis? A guy decides he wants to be "sure" and slips it into his girlfriend's coffee...a statutory rapist forces an underage girl to take it at the end of their "date" .....an angry teenager adds it her stepmother's dinner... a college girl figures if one is good she ought to take four....babies killed as easily and thoughtlessly as one does when popping a vitamin. What a horror.
  
  
  

Virgin and Mother-- Mother and yet, a Virgin

I am the Immaculate Conception

Requiem Emmabelle

My Aunt Emmabelle passed away. Mercy Lord.

The Pieta for when I need to adjust my attitude

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,

how Jesus, our Savior did come forth to die

for poor onery sinners like you and like I......

.

For God so loved the world....

For God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son.

Your Face, Lord do I seek

May the most Holy, most Sacred, most Adorable,
Most Incomprehensible and Ineffable 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. 

Reality calling Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi looks fantastic for her age but someone ought to tell the old girl that no matter how much botox she shoots up, no matter how hard she exercises and no matter how well she dresses she's already seen too many Winters  to be mocking her fellow Catholics and the "Catholic conscience thing". 

Please carry her home

I just heard that my aunt, Emmabelle is dying. What a tragedy her life has been! When she was a teenager she developed one of those silly school girl crushes and as  young girls are wont to do, she wrote some ungaurded love letters. The letters, as is often the case, fell into the wrong hands and an ugly scandal broke out in her family's church. Things got so bad that she ran away.

Her brothers tried to help her but she was just like a feral cat. She'd get only so close and despite all the patience and kindness they offered she could never bring herself to come inside. She could be maddening, she could be unnerving, when I was a child all the adults all seemed to be filled with exasperation when they mentioned her name and then in an instant they'd recall something hilarious she did. She could be the sunshine of the whole room. When my mother spoke of my fathers's wild sister  it was sometimes accompanied with a smile and usually with a sigh.

I think she suffered from depression and tried to make herself feel better with alcohol and drugs on occasion. Eventually she grew out of that but was left a physical wreck.  A few days ago my youngest uncle couldn't reach her on the phone and went to her place. He found her unconcious and took her to the hospital. The doctors say that she will die and it could be at any time. Her cancer is just too advanced. The only thing to do is to keep her comfortable and wait. I hope that she has time to reconcile with God. Dear Lord, please carry Emmabelle home.

From Russia, with love

The older ladies of Vladvivostok Catholic Mission in Russia make the most beautiful baby gowns for special occasions and baptisms I've ever seen. This would be a wonderful bit of Catholic Christmas shopping.

Virgin of Tenderness

Unhand me, Sir!

Bishop Foys has stepped up and told his people that the handholding during Mass is not cool.  There will be pouting but I suspect a lot of people will be quietly relieved. I'm a shy person and being grabbed by sweaty, sneezy, clammy or sticky(!) strangers is highly offensive. Unless you are my husband, my best friend or we are blood kin I really don't want to hold your hand. Period.