A Daughter of Charity

Goodbye childhood friend....

Farewell, Mr. Spock.

After the Wedding

Today it's not uncommon at Catholic weddings for the bride to leave her bouquet at Our Lady's chapel but in 1880s France Breton brides would come to church on the day after with her flowers.

I don't think St. Basil would be pleased

When I think of Father Rosica and Fr. Timothy Scott I have to wonder what the heck is wrong with the Basilian order?

Mother Vogl, pray for us.

St. John Eudes, pray for us.

St. John Vianney, pray for us.

St. Basil, pray for us. 

a beautiful memory

When I was seven or eight I stood in my church, St. Augustine, leaned against a pillar and looked up in awe at the light dancing from the stained glass portraits of Saints Paul and Augustine. They almost seemed to breathe and look down benignly on me. This painting brought that beautiful memory back to me.

An update on my uncle

My uncle has stabilized enough to be moved from the Critical Care unit at the hospital into a rehabilitation hospital. He has a tracheotomy and is lethargic. If you speak or touch him he responds. The staff at the rehab hospital are all very kind and upbeat.  I need to go to the nursing home and secure some of my uncle's things. The last time I was there it was obvious that someone had been watching his TV because the channel had been changed so I should probably get Rocky to take it home.  I really hope I don't see the nurse practitioner or his RN because I am not confident that I'll be civil.

Thank you all for your prayers. 

"Ya Yassou'a" -- Oh Jesus!

While certain Catholics in the West are obsessed with satisfying their sexual urges and then strutting up to Communion with a big used car salesman grin, Christians in the Middle East are being slaughtered. 

Ya Yassou'a is what the 21 Copts cried out as they were being killed. 

In your charity could you say a prayer?

My uncle has had a cold for three weeks. Now he's in the critical care unit. Guess what? The nurse practitioner at the his nursing home was wrong. He doesn't have a bad cold, he has pneumonia. Nursing home acquired pneumonia is common but takes a long time to treat. He's frightened and anxious and has to be sedated in order to let the oxygen antibiotics and bed rest work. When I got the phone call from the nursing home I sat down on the kitchen floor and cried. He's on a ventilator and will not be going back to the nursing home until he's been weaned off it.

In your charity could you say a little prayer for him?

Whatever happens I know, Christus regnat. Christ vincit. Christus imperat.

At prayer

St. Anthony's bread

If you visit a Franciscan monastery or parish on St. Anthony's feast day you will get blessed St. Anthony's bread after Mass.  

Our Lady warned us.....

"Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin.  The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury that would conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent.”

Words from Our Lady of Quito to Mother Mariana

Instead of wasting time and energy raging about the 50 Shades of Gray movie which is number one in both the US and internationally,how about reflecting on what to Our Lady who told us long ago.  And if you were disturbed by the book and movie check your daughter's room to see if she has a copy of the Twilight Trilogy.  It's just as toxic in it's way and 50 Shades was written as sort of a fan fiction tribute that to Edward and Bella's saga.

Religious art at the Walters

Rocky and I went to the Walters Museum in Baltimore to see the Medieval art exhibit. It was incredible.  It was very hard, to see the bishop's croziers, altar chalices and patens, and the reliquaries still holding the bones of saints in a museum instead of a church. I  made the sign of the cross before each relic holder and implored the saints to pray for us. When you first step off the elevator you will be in the main hall which looks like a church. Out of habit I almost genuflected. Rocky said he nearly did as well. We toured the Egyptian and Roman collections and because the museum was about to close we rushed through parts of the Renaissance and 18th century collections.



We saw one very famous painting, "The Christian Martyr's Last Prayer" by Jean-Leon Gerome. When you stand next to it and study the details you will get chills.

We also saw the a painting by an artist I'd never heard of but will be looking into in the future. Ary Scheffer who created this, "Christ Weeping Over Jerusalem"

random thoughts

• Michael Matt has a good question about the big papal extravaganza Masses. I have to say one thing about his experience in 1979. He was a child at the time and he wouldn't have known the difference from a biker gang dude from some guys in leather jackets. That being said, everything else said in the video makes sense. Obviously many, if not, most Catholics-- laity and clergy don't believe in transubstantiation, otherwise they would not act the way they do.

• The people who are outraged over the 50 Shades of Gray movie have their hearts in the right place but the horse has already left the barn. Where were they when the book was becoming a social phenomenon? The time to protest was when their female neighbors, friends and relatives were openly buying and discussing the filthy book and it's equally vile sequels.
  
  
  
• Speaking of vile, isn't it breathtaking when you consider that Cardinals Kaspar and Marx aren't even as honest as Martin Luther? Luther, nasty and nutty as he was, at least openly admitted his hatred of the Church and left.
  
  
  
• Michael Voris did a video on reactionary Catholics. But aren't we all reactionary, Mr. Voris included? Is not his own CMTV a reaction to the horrible and unreported things going on in the Church? Things happen and we respond unless we are oblivious or dead. When one sees rain, a normal person reacts by getting out the umbrella, going back inside or deciding to that getting wet is no big deal. When faced with a weird looking man standing by your car in a dark and empty parking lot most women react by asking someone to walk with them to the car, waiting for the scary guy  to leave or by calling the cops.
  
  
  
  
• Pope Benedict says he has no regrets about resigning. I half way believe him. The poor, dear man is probably so relieved to be out of the limelight and out of the verbal and spiritual cross-hairs of those who hate the Church but if you think about the precedent he set and how bad the whole thing looks, that he probably regrets. 

An ancient crucifix

This was made in 970 AD. 

St. Apollonia

My birthday saint.

At prayer

Random thoughts on a Wenesday

• Has the existence of legal abortion ruined gynecology? A long time ago, I started bleeding heavily and it went on for four weeks. My doctor shrugged and brusquely  told me it was a miscarriage but that my body was handling it.  I was young and meekly accepted that. After six weeks I was exhausted and darn close to full blown shrieking hysteria. He pooh poohed me. I went to a new doctor and got a D&C. Women my age are not surprised by this story but older women in their 60s and 70s are appalled. My doctor at the time did not graduate at the bottom of his class. He was well respected and had a long career. I wonder if the existence of legal abortion helped create the husk over that man's soul.
  
  
• I saw four Dark Eyed Juncos this morning and these plump little snow birds were so cute I forgot the cold for a few minutes.

•  I was reading a lament by the father of several children that went something like this: we never take vacations, or buy new cars or stuff unlike those wicked(?) people over there. The poor man was probably tired and stressed when he wrote his long rant but he's assuming that parents with one or three children are living it up but that's not always the case. A lot of people are just barely hanging on financially and are not doing any better than the couple with ten kids.
  
  
• You've probably seen the photos of that poor, poor Jordanian pilot being burned alive.  May God have mercy on his soul. 

• Mass tonight was wonderful as usual. Fr. Sharp is not a flashy orator but his homilies have much wisdom. 

• “The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should men grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.” – Pope Benedict XI
  
  
• Our Lady of Good Success, pray for us. 

This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

This shameless obscenity  took place at St. Mary's Catholic Church Marysville,(!), Washington, on Superbowl Sunday. Notice that Our Lord is nowhere to be seen.  The pastor, these parishioners are the cool kids. They are in full communion and in good standing. Even if the local bishop does not really approve it's likely that he won't say a blessed thing. 

Now, I like football and I'm always thrilled at the start of the season each year but this is wrong. If I came to the homes of any of these people, removed their photos and put up ones that suit me they'd be outraged at my presumption. How much more  wrong is it to go to God's house and put Him aside to celebrate someone else?