random thoughts

From the Passion of the Christ

 

*I just subscribed to Laudamus te, a beautiful devotional missal/magazine. It’s very much like Magnificat but for the Tridentate Mass.


*I visited my uncle on Saturday instead of my usual Sunday and afterwards we went to Assumption church near the nursing home. We've become quite fond of that little parish. The pastor was away and they had a guest priest. He was a gentle confessor and preached his homily with such passion that he looked positively drained afterwards. He mentioned that he's been to many parishes and some have left him simply astonished at the coldness of the people. I had to smile because I've been to a lot of churches like that.


*Is anybody really surprised that the SSPX and the Vatican couldn't reach a deal?


*I was reading New Theological Movement and a commenter said that the Anglicans are more catholic than many of the regular Catholics sitting in the pews. If I see or hear that particular remark one more time I think I'll spit.


*Rocky volunteered to help his brother Knights of Columbus with the parish picnic this year. I'm at home sick and didn't go. This morning he went to pick up the catering order at a local Salvadoran restaurant and later told me that it was like a Western movie. He walked in and it got silent. The customers stopped eating and stared at him. I guess they thought he was a cop or an ICE agent. 


*I just can't read Fisheaters anymore. It's just too sad. It's like walking down the street and finding one of your high school classmates covered in his own muck and bile as he kicks and screams in the gutter. Even if you never really liked the guy it makes your stomach turn to to see it.



*I have fallen in love with the "Overwhelmed by You" song in the Sam Adams beer commercial. I don't care about beer but that song is great.




*Eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord..... Can we please leave Afghanistan? At this point I'm ready to vote for Donald Duck if he assures me that this country will leave that land for good.



*When trying to figure out how to be a good wife and mother don't consult magazines or pop pyschology books . Instead look to Mary. You can not do any better than her.



Of Hobbits, bubbles, and young girls' souls

Father Z has a post on the Hobbit, a book that changed his life. For me, the big book was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sarah Crewe's gallantry, kindness, and patience and her loyalty moved me deeply when I was eight and I never forgot her or the desire to be like her.  I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's books too. Half Pint's resoucefulness and grit impessed me. When parents let their kids read great novels it has an effect. When they let them read trash that has an effect too. I wouldn't be surprised if the foolish women who can't get enough of Fifty Shades of Gray weren't big fans of Flowers in the Attic when they were girls.


Parents have to monitor what goes into their child's brain and not just reading material. You have to constantly preach and more importantly you have to live what you preach. On Ann Barnhardt's page (warning--if you can't take strong language don't go there), she mentions a woman who complained that her daughter wants to be like Kim Kardashian. Miss Barnhardt told her to get rid of her cable TV and the woman replied that she didn't want to live in a little bubble. Actually, in this case, the problem isn't so much the TV as the national culture. You don't have to watch her show to know what the Kardashian woman is doing and this is not the first time a low woman has been idolized by millions.

Kardashian is in fact,  the tip of a spear that goes way, way back. Delilah and Jezebel were dazzling. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a terrible wife and aduteress but she was adored and today remains  a heroine to both feminist and non feminists. Englishwomen may not have loved Anne Boleyn but they were fascinated by her. Her French hoods and extra long sleeves were widely copied. Madam DuBarry set the fashions at Court and was imitated by both good and bad. In Lillie Langtry's day everyone wanted to be like her even though she was an open adulteress. Women rushed to buy anything that Lillie endorsed and people flocked her plays wherever she was in the world. In latter times Elizabeth Taylor and Lana Turner and Angelina Jolie are idolized. If a woman is beautiful and hard enough to dare to do the outrageous she can get away with almost anything. As I said before, it's an old story. Evil has glamour.

But getting back to the woman Miss Barnhart was talking about. She has failed but not necessarily by refusing to get rid of the TV, she's failed because she's obviously not paying enough attention to her kid and she doesn't appear to filling her matriarch role. If your pre-teen daughter's idol is a harlot and she's comfortable telling you that, you messed up somewhere. 

Instead of complaining to people who are too polite to call her out, this woman should be telling her kid that Kardashian is disgusting and that she doesn't want to see or hear anything in her house with that name and that no amount of imitation of that woman's behavior will be tolerated. That means no more shopping at Sears, no purchases of Kardashian perfume  and no more OPI nail polish until they stop selling the  Kardashian brand, and no purchases of any magazine that has her on the cover. Her kid may resent her and be pouty for months but she'll get the message: In mom's house, Kim Kardashian is not a heroine.

Elizabeth Taylor was my father's favorite actress but I knew full well that he did not want me to imitate her personal life. I was my dad's little queen but I knew there were lines, fences of protection that I did not need to cross or there would be consequences. I'm betting that the woman with the Kardashian loving daughter doesn't have any fences. Lacking a fence doesn't mean you don't live in a Christian bubble, it means that predators of all kinds have access to your kid's mind and immortal soul.

Something beautiful

It's been a horrible week so I've prayed more and looked at the calming photos from the breathtakingly beautiful Tumblr blog, Brides of Christ.

A Carmelite novice

When I was little I wanted to be a Carmelite like St. Therese. 

St. Marguerite

While we weren't looking

Delaware just outlawed spanking. Don't say, "Well, I don't do corporal punishment anyway." Tommorow some state could outlaw time outs because they are humiliating or making a kid do chores becuase it's child labor. Bit by bit, the State is taking over private life but most of us are too busy being stupafied by things like Kate Middleton's bosom or what some celebrity is saying.

Sacred Heart Nuns

Agnus Dei!

 

 

 

 

The most beautiful bride I've ever seen

 

Sr. Christiana of the Byzantine Carmelites. 

Vocaton poster fail

Uh Sirs, I'm just a librarian but I'm pretty sure this poster put out by Irish Jesuits won't attract guys to the priesthood.

These might be a little better.

St. Joseph Cupertino

Viva Cristo Rey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Give your priest a break

I saw this prayer on Rorate Caeli and it reminded me of something I've been mulling over for years. I've watched Father Eagle and Father Gandalf and Father Aragon before him be gracious and patient and perfectly attentive to hundreds of people. Years ago a woman wrote on her blog that she was upset because her parish  priest didn't come greet her group. It didn't seem to occur to her that Father might have been doing something else that day like paying the water bill or talking to a bride and groom or spraying sealant on that darn leaky pipe in the kitchen. It also didn't seem to occur to her that lots of groups meet at the parish every week. Surely Father shouldn't be expected to vist every single group  at every meeting? We all have one pastor with one set of quirks to put up with but he has hundreds or thousands of demanding  people to deal with. On a human level it's too much to handle. On the supernatural level it can only be achieved by a total union with the Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ.

random thoughts

*Several years ago I was sitting in a hair salon while one of the stylists told a story about her brother who was talking to his friend, a Rastafarian. The brother implored his friend to see that the Emperor Haile was not the Messiah. The Rasta friend gave the brother an affectionate pat on the back and told him that becuase he was his friend he would let the comment pass. If he were anyone else the Rasta would have to kill him. Some of the ladies in the salon giggled and the stylist shook her head in wonderment and said, "They really do mean what they preach and they'll defend it to the end."
Americans and most Westerners have gotten soft and sloppy about core beliefs. We innocently believe that since we are squishy about religion that everybody else is too.  Nope. I wish more Americans would wake up and realize that we are dealing with people who are not like us.  As Belloc once said:

We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.

 

 

*Fr. Bear helped in the celebration of a beautiful Tridentine wedding in Old St. Mary's in DC. Back in the 90s I would get up take a bus and then a train to Chinatown in DC to go to the TLM at St. Mary's. The neighborhood was rough back in those days and I moved quickly from the train station to the church. Chinatown is fashionable again so things are much better now.


*I've been sick all week and the weekend isn't looking too good either. I'm really looking forward to going to Mass today for the consolation.


*Pray for the Pope. I wish he weren't in Lebanon but he's braver than I am.

*When George Washington was sixteen he wrote out the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavor in one of his notebooks and decided to live by them. Too bad the Duchess of Cambridge never read them. Rule number seven could've saved her and her husband Prince William some embarassment.

*  Have you ever noticed that when there's a conversation about possible societal collaspe that certain guys seem excited by the possibility? My mother is a diabetic and she has no thyroid. I can stockpile food, toilet paper and a little something for personal secuirity. I can raise chickens and grow some vegtables but I can't make insulin or synthetic hormone. My husband takes two medicines everyday and I can't make those either. If access to a pharmacy is cut off for more than an month millions of people are going to die or in my case, be miserable and sickly. Nobody seems to talk about that.


*Katrina Fernandez has decided to stop blogging for awhile. I wish her the best and I hope she comes back as an independent blogger.

God have mercy

Ambassador Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. died horrible deaths. May God have mercy on their souls and may God's wisdom sink into the thick skulls of the people who run our country.  I think of the families of Steven, Smith, Woods and Doherty and I can't imagine how they must feel now. God give them strength and comfort.

This aint glamorous

These two news stories from Hollywood and New York City are an unpleasant reminder that the sophisticated people we're all supposed to look up to really aren't very pretty at all.

While we weren't looking...

I remember flipping channels and for few seconds listening to an Evangelical  (I can't remember his name) on TV years ago, who said that the pedophiles and their psychiatric enablers would use the same tactics as gays to win sympathy and legalization of their activities.  The reaction the next day was pretty fierce. Most commentators scoffed and at least one public homosexual gave the Evangelical a furious rebuttal. Other people just laughed at such a ridiculous notion and used the man's remarks as an example of how dumb the Evangelicals were.

Well, while we weren't looking because we were too busy paying attention to celebrity gossip to deal with hard news or unpleasant facts, the pedophiles were busy working and society is on a conveyor belt being moved further down towards a foul goal. A sympathetic article on child molesters appeared last week in a popular  online publication. It uses the "born this way" argument and claims that putting a child molester in jail doesn't do any good. Of course, incarceration doesn't change pedophiles. They enjoy what they do. Incarceration keeps them safely away from children. Incarceration doesn't cure rapists or con artists either. They enjoy what they do. It punishes and prevents them from harming the innocent for a number of years.

That "silly, hateful, hysterical,"Evangelical with his bad hair cut, cheap suit and poor public speaking voice was right. The age of sexual consent is going to be lowered. Legalized pedophilia will creep up on us. It may take twenty years but unless we have a religious revival or a societal collapse I think it's going to happen and most of us won't even notice until our 15 year old granddaughter's 40 year old "date" shows up and there won't be a single legal thing we  will be able to do to stop her from going out the door with him.

Maria Bambina

Most Maria Bambina statues show Our Lady as a tiny infant that St. Anne has just swaddled. This one shows a chubby cheeked tot.

Sr. Simone have you read Mt 25:1-13?

Sr. Simone says abortion is above her paygrade. What good do the LCWR nuns do? Do they teach like the Nashville Dominicans? Do they serve the poor --- and let's be honest, real poor people don't live in pleasant or safe places--- like the Missionaries of Charity? Do they take care of the aged like the Little Sisters of the Poor? 

Do they dedicate themselves to Marylike behavior and charity like the Sister Servants of the Virgin? Do they take care of cancer patients like the Hawthorne Dominicans? Do they teach and nurse and look after refugees like the wonderful Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus?  Do they take care of the homeless like the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary? Do they dedicate themselves to prayer and reparation like the Handmaids of the Precious Blood?

Do the LCWR nuns do anything beyond riding around in luxury buses making nuisances of themselves?

A Prayer for priests

Lord Jesus, by Thy Precious Blood shed on the way to Calvary, take pity on priests who are victims of injustice, and who, like their adorable Model, receive in return for their devotedness, but crosses, trials and persecutions.


Amen

A prayer for priests from St. Therese

 

What a beautiful vocation we have!

We must keep the salt of the earth!

We offer our prayers and sacrifices

for the apostles of our Lord;

we ourselves must be their apostles,

while they evangelize our brothers

by word and example.

To live for love, O Lord divine,

It's asking Thee to fill with fire

The hearts of all our priests and Thine.

Seraphic purity may they acquire.

Protect Thy Church. I am her child.

My life I offer Thee. Is it enough?

I pray to Thee so kind and mild.

I live for love.

The souls of priests I wish to be

Clear and bright alike a star.

Each one of them, for angels to see,

Before he goes up to the altar.

To grant us such a miracle,

O God, a rosary we say.

We pray before the tabernacle

On our knees, all nigiht and day.

As pure as the white Host may be

Thy priests, these sacred chosen few.

For all the world their lives to see.

Thy friends who teach us in the pew.

May they fulfill their ministry sublime

At Eucharist and frequent preaching.

Accept me in Thy plan divine

As victim for Thy harvesting.

random thoughts

 

• Romanitas Press has a few serious points about processions of the Blessed Sacrament. Pity the poor priest who has to explain to the outraged mamas why their little Honey Pie can't  be a flower girl though.
• I was walking to work and stopped to look at the newspaper boxes for Washington Post, Washington Examiner and the New York Times. All of them  had stories about Hurricaine Isaac on the front covers. If one didn't know better one would think the hurricaine was threatening DC and New York rather than being a fairly frequent weather phenomenon on the Gulf Coast.  I think a lot of news celebrities were privately dissapointed that Isaac wasn't another Katrina.
  
• The truth is the truth even when we don't want to hear it.
  
• Someone at work (hardcore Democrat),was carrying on about the Republican convention. I was polite but I couldn't wait to get away from him.  He's a normaly a nice man but this whole election cycle has brought out a nasty streak that I hadn't realized existed before.
  
  
• I was reading something defending gay priests as long as they are celibate and I sighed. A gay priest who is not sleeping with anyone can still be a problem. If he's noticeably effeminate he's probably repulsing the men and boys in the parish and if the priesthood is percieved to be a soft, warm, wet, sluglike thing then most boys are not going to want to answer the call.
  
  
• I've come across a number of articles written by women sternly telling men to man up. All I can say to that is it's too late. After 40 some odd years of feminism attacking men for being men we can't demand that they suddenly stop behaving like geldings and cads. Having allowed the feminists to make our bed it's too late to whine now. The smart girls are going to find their manly man and marry him. The not so smart girls.... are going to sit around in the club on Saturday night and complain about men.
  
  
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• Last night I stood and looked up at the blue moon, thought of Neil Armstrong and hummed the song.