Random thoughts for a sickly weekend

• I spent the weekend being sick with a sinus infection that turned into laryngitis. I went to Mass with Rocky but I felt weak and unsteady. When we got home I went straight to bed. On the bright side I did catch up on reading stuff from around Catholic blog land.
  
  
• Louie Verrichio was singularly unimpressed by the Stations of the Cross performance at World Youth Day in Poland. So far every video I've seen from the event  has been somewhat embarrassing. Seeing priests and nuns trying to be cute and hip just makes me cringe. How does goofball stuff like this convert anybody?

• Here is another Mass without pews  painting. It looks like  people were able to be closer for adoration then than we are now.Warning: if you decide to do an image search for more works by this artist you should be aware that although he produced beautiful public art work for pay, in private he was obsessed with pornography  and you will come across some pretty foul stuff.

• Rocky and I went to Saint Michael's, Maryland for his birthday last weekend. It was lovely. We visited the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and were amazed at how many birds we saw including  Great Blue Herons and a Coopers Hawk who just sat and looked at us. We went to the St. Michael's Mission for Mass and since they are so used to visitors no-one seemed the least bit surprised to see us. I even got to go to confession.  The priest is very old and has mobility problems so while I was not thrilled to see the army of Eucharistic ministers it was obvious that he needed help.
  
  
  
• I was reading an essay from a man who teaches preparedness in case of local and national emergencies  and something in me snapped. He expects that if the economy really turns bad in this country then  city people will be preyed on by the looting, killing hordes and his attitude was one of good riddance. That he would be cheerful about terror and death befalling  my city dwelling family members and me because I work in DC made me angry and I have news for him. In a societal collapse he won't be safe in the country.  You have to sleep sometime and you wont be able to defend your vegetables  and  chickens 24 hours a day. Those who long for a total collapse because people they hate will surely be wiped out may themselves be among first ones to fall victim to it.
  
  
  
• I don't understand why anyone is surprised by this.  Men have been saying for decades that Maynooth Seminary was no good.
  
  
  
• Until we find out more about Fr Jaques Hamel's murder we cannot call him a martyr. If witnesses state that the killers offered to spare his life if he denied Christ and he refused with even a shake of his head then yes, he is a martyr.  Being murdered by a Muslim doesn't make you a martyr. Everyone talking about sainthood needs to step back and wait for evidence. Bless his heart and God give him peace, but Fr. Hamel does not appear at this time to be a latter day St. Ignatius or St. Thomas Moore. 

• The lines for Confession at my parish are getting longer. It's a thrilling sight.
  
  

• Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut spoke in poetic terms about getting so close to the homeless that your heart touches theirs. Unfortunately, he was speaking to kids at World Youth Day and if even one of them actually goes out on the streets hugging homeless people and gets hurt the bishop should be blamed for his lack of care in speaking.  Many of the homeless on our streets are insane to some degree. Others are criminals who are not welcome back into their own families. A few are regular people who are genuinely down on their luck and too bewildered to get themselves together at the moment. Many, many women have been raped, people have been robbed and killed by men who had no fixed address. Seeming to encourage 15 year olds to follow a schizophrenic down an alley in order to embrace them or to crawl into a tent to minister to a man who has a rap sheet as long as his arm is imprudent and could lead to tragedy.
  
  

• Since I seem to be on a World Youth Day theme  I'm remember reading a story about a young woman who went to the last World Youth Day and was so disgusted that she left the Church for the Eastern Orthodox. She's mistaken but she's not the only one who's looking at the Orthodox as an escape. I'm reading more and more comments on even traditional Catholic discussion boards about going East because it beats losing their faith altogether or sitting at home alone praying the Rosary on Sunday. A few people have found peace by turning to the Byzantine rite but that is not an option for most folks because Byzantine parishes are not thick on the ground in the US. The people who are heading out the door to the Orthodox are not making a big public splash. They aren't saying anything to their priests and nobody is  blogging about it. They are just burning out and leaving. This is a tragedy.