An Easter week mess

By now you've probably heard about the pope's phone call to the woman in Argentina in the irregular marriage. The usual people are making the usual excuses and I'm not interested in that. It is possible that  Jacqueline Sabetta Lisbona is a miserable attention seeking  liar and that the Holy Father is too much of a gentleman to call her out on it. Do you believe that? Other than the part about this woman being an attention seeker, I don't.  If the Holy Father really said "A little bread and wine does no harm," then we have a problem. There is no way to find out what the Holy Father meant if he did really say this and unless the Vatican comes out and explains, it's just a mess. 

 

St. Vincent Martyr

St. Vincent bishop of Saragossa,  with the instruments of his martydom

Pray for us, mighty saint. 

Mass without Pews

This drawing shows a brave priest and his little flock at Mass during the French Revolution. If caught they could expect nothing but execution.

Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!

Happy Easter!

Jesus laid in the tomb

Via Dolorosa by James Tissot

Good Friday

I saw this on YouTube and was awed.

Look at His back

In 1754, German artist, Franz Ignaz Gunther sculpted "Christ at the Column." It's a masterwork and it is so hard to look at this representation of Christ's back and remember that Our Lord's allowed  His skin be ripped open and bits of it  torn from His body for love of me and to save me from my sins.

random thoughts

*Last year a priest from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter gave a series of short homilies on the the Passion that have been very useful to hear.

*The weirdest thing about being in my 40s is the frequent feeling of deja vu. I look at the news and realize that I've seen this all before. The media in America whips people into hysteria about this or that epidemic and then when they get tired they go on to something else. My mother refuses to watch any 24 news channel and I see why.

*Today is the anniversary of my father's death. It boggles my mind to think that he's been gone longer now than all the years he was with me. In your charity could you please pray for him?






*Restore-DC-Catholicism: When Emotions Trump Intellect And Will - The Father Ray Kelly Fiasco gently but firmly points out a few things about the Irish singing priest.




 



*There is going to be a Catholic art competition and exhibition in Latrobe, Pennsylvania this Summer. I may have to make a trip up there to see it.



*Bill Donahue of the Catholic League says the pedophilia crisis is over. I think he's wrong. I think it will never be over or at the very least it won't be just a page in the history books  like the dates of the Black Death until most of the people currently on this earth are long dead. Heck, it's been 150 or so years since the Civil War and people still get into heated debates about the cause of that fratricidal conflict.

Twenty years from now people will still be coming forward claiming to be victims or that they know  someone who was victimized. Lives of whole families have been ruined, the suffering went on for decades and for untold numbers of people, it still goes on.  And there is something else---to paraphrase something  a young priest in Texas once said in a speech, knowing as we do now, that these predators were operating unchecked by bishops and cardinals  and certain high ranking or well connected clergy serving at the Vatican has scalded the hearts of untold numbers of people. Men and women have lost their Faith and may never get it back because of what happened. Telling them that most of the men who did these crimes are elderly or dead now doesn't cut it. Especially since we can't be sure that is true.

Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa

Mother Angeline started out as a member of the Little Sisters of the Poor order. She felt called to minister to elders who may or may not have been poor but were still lonely, sick and afraid so with the advice of Cardinal Hayes of New York she formed the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. She admonished her nuns to "Be kinder than kindness itself to the old people."
This dear daughter of St. Teresa  passed away in 1984, and there is a cause for her beatification and canonization. Now this is a woman to emulate. You can visit the formation blog for the order here.

Palm Sunday

Holy Week is finally here. I'm so excited.  

How to make a Palm Cross

I've been looking a how to videos for hours and none of them was anything like the way I learned to do it in school until I found this one. It's easy and fast. I also learned how to make a rosette from this site  but what I really want is for someone to show me hands on how to make a palm rose.

 

Son of God

Aggressive driving while Catholic

I was going to work last week and a woman in a car almost hit me. She came so close the wheels were probably inches from my feet and I actually  felt it go by. She had a big 40 Days for Life car magnet on her door  and a bumper sticker with the name of her parish church. I was on the sidewalk and I don't think the lady even looked back as she turned to get into the public garage. If she had hit me I'd have been badly hurt and in the hospital tonight. I wanted to yell at her but I was so stunned I just stood still. A priest can be an angelic pastor, the  pope can be noble hearted and have the preaching tongue of St. Anthony  but for the most part, people make up their mind about the Faith by their interactions with ordinary Catholic lay people and the lady with the  parish and 40 Days for Life ads on her car didn't look to good to any of the witnesses on the sidewalk that day. If you're going to be a jerk or a menace at least put the rosary in the glove compartment and peel off the stickers.


Thanks be to God that the car and my flesh and bones didn't actually meet!

Passiontide Sunday

Gethsemane

A work of mercy

A nice young man was murdered this week. He leaves behind a wife who is expecting a baby next month. You can help her by donating here. If you can't donate,  pray for this poor woman. Somehow she has to carry on, bury her husband, have a baby alone and be wise, and brave.  Being a widow is a hard blow under any circumstances but when it comes in such a violent way it must be excruciating.


Eternal rest grant unto Nathan Oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.


Oh Mary, Mother of Sorrows, you who know what it is to be a widow, pray for Nathan's bride, Jennifer.

Amen

God is Near the Afflicted by Tissot

A Monk in the Library