*This male is a priest. He is uh....performing at a youth party on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Spain. Everyone was in costume and I guess he was trying to be hip and "with it". Poor man. When I was a teenager I loathed hip priests and did not like when they tried to be on my level. "Esto vir", Father. Don't be a grown up kid. Don't be a big ole doofus. You are a priest forever, a son of Adam. You have such great dignity. Don't throw it away. What's even more horrifying is that this priest is in good standing but these are being swatted around like flies. HT Eponymous Flower and Katholishes.
*Christmas Eve Vigil Mass was much, much better this year. Rocky was ushering and it was incredible watching him and the other ushers work. It takes skill, patience and good eyes to do this job when there is a huge crowd. Most folks were well behaved but one man was surprised that Rocky couldn't find seats for him and his whole family. Note: if you come half way through Mass on Christmas Eve, you will probably have to stand. Sorry.
*My aunt Mavis had a colonoscopy in January. It went wrong and she ended up nearly dying and having to wear a colostomy bag. This month she was well enough for the bag to be removed. She's back to her normal life! Praise God.
*St. Joseph was not going to Bethlehem to beg or party. He was there to pay his taxes. Mary was NOT an unwed mother. Please do not tolerate that blasphemy to be spoken in your presence by anyone who should know better. She was married to Joseph from the day of their betrothal. Recently some "expert" wrote that Our Lord wasn't born in a stable but in the main room of some nice family's house. A poor family with no locked stable couldn't risk having their animals stolen so it was common to bring one's animals in for the night and to leave hay out for them, hence the manger. Well okay.... I'm reminded of my Great Uncle John. In his middle age he developed either agoraphobia or a serious depression and stepped back from the world into his cabin. He brought his chicken flock inside to live with him. Sounds cute? No. Imagine chicken manure everywhere and then consider how "charming" a living room with a donkey or goat would be. Both animals are a lot bigger than chickens and they are not housebroken but go when and where nature calls. In my Great Uncle's case only my grandfather could stand to go visit because it was just plain nasty. Even if Mary and Joseph were inside a house it was no means cozy or sweet smelling.
However, I do doubt the living room of somebody's house theory because Mary needed privacy if the birth was to be painless. Had Our Lord been born with witnesses they would've told everybody about it and probably squealed to Herod's men for the right amount of money. Mary and Joseph were able to slip out of Bethlehem without anybody taking notice after a year or two of living there because nobody outside of a few shepherds and the Wise Men knew how special the Baby King was.
*This could've been avoided if Andrea Bocelli had been in the choir loft instead of at the pulpit. HT to Adrienne's Corner
*WARNING! The following is distasteful. If you don't want to read anything gross skip this post.
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Still with me? Okay. My mother started out as a housekeeper and worked her way up to the inspector level at a big luxury hotel in DC. Once, and this is the one of the tamest stories I can relate, she was walking down the hall when she saw two males leave a suite and head to the hotel lobby. One was middle aged, well dressed and the other was young, The younger one apologized for well....relieving himself all over the other. The older man patted him on the back and said it was okay. My mother checked the room. Human waste was in the bed, on the floor and in the bathroom. The bedding was thrown away but the room and furniture had to be cleaned and sanitized and a team of men were paid extra to deal with it. Austin Ruse wrote about a few Catholic writers who look at the two males in this little drama and sugar coat the whole thing. I think they are Grima Wormtounges smoothly attacking a sick Theoden while smiling in his face and being oh so reasonable.
