Thanks for the inspiraton Fr.

Years ago, Rocky and I were visiting the Lourdes Shrine in Emmitsburg and were walking quickly and saying our rosary with blinding speed because it was hellaciously cold. Then, we saw a Dominican priest. He was walking slowly and had the most beautiful calm look on his face. He nodded at at us, smiled and disappeared into the bushes like a ghost. Since we were on the path he was going to walk in the rough. He was also barefoot. Rocky and I stopped, and stared. You wouldn't think black and white would be good camouflage but Fr. was completely lost from our view within seconds. "Did you see his feet?" Rocky asked. "Yeah." Suddenly neither one of us was all that cold anymore. We slowed down and really took our time praying. God bless that priest wherever he is and God bless this Franciscan whose photo I found on the St. Blogustine blog.

Something to keep in prayer

I  don't always enjoy reading Aid to the Church in Need but it's good to be reminded that the Church is bigger than the smug, decadent West and is suffering in many places. Remember Yugoslavia? Remember that war and how the US intervened .Remember how people said it was going to turn out badly for the local Christians? Well, read this.  Life for Sr. Ivanka has become so unpleasant that she and her sisters don't leave the convent alone. US time, talent and treasure were wasted to create this awful situation. Our Lady, Help of Christians, please keep the Franciscan sisters safe.

Mass at St. Ritas

2011, was a wretched year and 2012, isn't looking too much better but there's one thing that always raises my spirits; Thursday night Mass at St. Rita's in the Tridentine form. Fr. Eagle has so much energy and enthusiasm and both he and Fr. Bear are serious about offering confession for as long as it takes for every soul to be taken care of. We have the most adorable little altar boys and an interesting mix of people. Most of the people in the pews are young. At 44, I'm one of the oldest ladies present.

Next week is Candlemass and Fr. Eagle is excited about it. He's planning a solemn high Mass and  there will be a schola. If you are in Alexandria on February 2nd, this will be a beautiful balm for your soul.

Stop that crying

Once when I was a kid I disobeyed my mother and did something stupid. It backfired spectacularly  of course and I was left crying in the living room. My mother told me to stop it. I had done wrong and now I was facing the painful consequences. Over 50% of Catholics voted for Obama. There were warnings that most of the people in this Administration are Deatheaters but the warnings were ignored and the people who spoke the warnings were called narrow minded, backward, paranoid and just plain dumb. So now we have this. 

Other than Douglas Kmiec is anybody really surprised? So let's stop crying.

Pray for us, St. John Fisher, and St. Thomas Moore.

So what's the story on the Neo Cats?

Father Z says their rite has not been approved. Everybody else I've read says, sadly, angrily or just noncommittally says that their rite has been approved. I read the pope's statement and I didn't understand it one way or the other.  The Way is big and I guess the pope's advisers are afraid that they'll schism if they are pushed.

After three days they found Him...

Random thoughts

• Please pray for Fr. Rodriguez. I have a feeling that he's going to be steamrolled.

• Politics is a nasty business and wives and children get treated badly all the time. Andrew Jackson’s poor wife was called a bigamist, adulteress and an uncouth pipe smoker. Abraham Lincoln’s enemies pursued poor Mary Todd Lincoln relentlessly. She could do no right as far as they were concerned. If she had a party people complained that it was wrong to do so because a war was going on.  When she stopped all social activities because her son was dead people complained that she was making DC dull. It was said that Woodrow Wilson and his second wife got married too soon after his first wife’s death and had been lovers before the marriage. People called the Bush twins party girls which is a euphemism for slut. And who can forget the venom that was belched out of hell in the direction of Sarah Palin's litte boy, Trig? So it’s not surprising that a cruel hit piece has been written on Karen Santorum. I won’t link to it.  

• One really good way for a young woman to mess up her life is to listen to the wrong people. I know a  newlywed who was  happily living in a one bedroom rental with her husband. Her  well to do family shamed and nagged the young couple to buying a modest house. Guess what? The housing market crashed. She now has a house that is worth an ocean’s depth less than what she and her husband owe on it. They were living comfortably before, now they are right on the razor's edge.  That is not a good place to be. It frays nerves and gives rise to silent resentment. And because they are so "poor" she refuses to have children until her husband gets a better paying job. Never, ever let anyone put your husband down. It's disloyal, it's a violation of your marriage vows and it's stupid.
  
  
• It's Girl Scout cookie season and I'm going to pass. The organization has been on the wrong track for decades but their decision to dance with Planned Parenthood and to expose girls to the Healthy, Happy, Hot  brochure are just too disgusting. Hot? Excuse me? Encouraging a little girl to be hot is the work of pimps. Juliette Lowe, the founder of the Girl Scouts  would weep if she could see what happened to her wholesome little club. Find a Little Flowers, Camp Fire Girls or a Heritage Girls group. The Girl Scouts are just too corrupt to bother with.
  
  
• There is a scene in Braveheart where Wallace says to Princess Isabelle. "One day you will be a queen. And you will  have to open your eyes."  I think many Catholics are in the fictional Princess Isabelle's shoes. We need to open our eyes. We can be for abortion or against it. There is no middle way. We can please the world or we can please God. When it comes to abortion, we can not do both.

This made me cringe

This is embarassing and reminded me of the time Rocky and I went to the worst Mass we've ever seen before or since. It's true that Our Lord was born in a stable and was around animals all His earthly life. It is also true that when Our Lord went to His Fathers's house and found men selling animals and changing money on holy ground He made a whip and drove them out. Where is the bishop? Our Lord is disrespected in His own house and people think it's cute. St. John Vianney, pray for us.

Restless, hungry hearts in the pews

I've noticed something and been  trying to find a way to adequately describe it. A lot of ordinary people just do not seem to be happy with the Mass or their parish. They must jazz the liturgy up with insipid Protestant praise songs to make it bearable. I know of a local parish where long time parishioners got angry and left because the new priest wanted to have something other than the four hymn folk choir week after week.  That folk music and their ties to the powerful choir director was more important to them than anything else.

So many people chase after fads to liven things up; they smile at the girls and middle aged women leaping down the aisle in their liturgical dance clothes .  They think it's adorable when the priest calls all the kids up to stand around the altar during the Consecration. They get mad, on occasion glaring and cursing mad  if you don't want to hold their hands during the Our Father.

Other people choose a somewhat different route. They run to the New Movements. The Neo Cats, Cursillo, Opus Dei, Focolare, Miles Jesu, and in their prime, the Legion of Christ offered people things they could not get in their parishes : certainty, a priest who unequivocally  said yes or no, tight personal bonds, intense devotion, a mission in life and passion.  Still other people deal with the spiritual hunger by not  joining anything. They shuffle in at the very last minute, do their close to a whole hour at church and explode out of the pew as soon as Communion is over. 

 And then there are the folks who had to go to other Rites to find peace. They seek refuge in the beautiful liturgies of  the Eastern Rite parishes such as the Maronite or Byzantine. If these are not available they look wistfully  at photos and video of the Orthodox or the Anglican service.  I've read a number of comments from people who are excited about the Anglican Ordinariate because now
they will be able to go an Ordinariate Mass and leave their old parish for good.

And of course there are the people who out of curiosity walked into a TLM one day and fell in love. They go when they can or they found a parish that is completely Tridentine and have finally found pure joy.

 There are a lot of restless, hungry hearts in many pews across this nation.


* I originally forgot one large group of people. The folks who either had a crisis and left the Chruch altogether or the individuals who never had an argument with the Church they just drifted away and only come back for Ash Wenesday, Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals because the Faith as presented in their parishes just wasn't enough to hold them. No priest or layperson ever showed them what Archbishop Sheen called :

...a virile Christ and a leader worth following in these terrible times; One Who will step into the breach of death, crushing sin, gloom and despair; a leader to Whom we can make totalitarian sacrifice without losing, but gaining freedom, and Whom we can love even unto death. We need a Christ today Who will make cords and drive the buyers and sellers from our new temples; Who will blast the unfruitful fig-trees; Who will talk of crosses and sacrifices and Whose voice will be like the voice of the raging sea. But He will not allow us to pick and choose among His words, discarding the hard ones, and accepting the ones that please our fancy. We need a Christ Who will restore moral indignation, Who will make us hate evil with a passionate intensity, and love goodness to a point where we can drink death like water.

Adoration of the Magi

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I put all my trust in Thee...

Thank you, my God, true Font of mercy. When I called You answered. When I shed tears You heard me. When I needed You so badly, You were right there. You are always there. You are my Light in the darkness. You are my Way. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanks for the answered prayers

Holy Mary, Mother of God

St. Anthony, St. Pio, St. Therese, St. Joan, St. Francis, St. Jude, St. Rita, St. Tarcisius