Three days in the country and other random thoughts

Mother most amiable, pray for us

• Did Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ actually do any priestly work? Did he say Mass anywhere, offer any sacraments such as matrimony and confession, visit the sick,.....attempt to convert any Chinese in the 20 years he spent there? It seems like his primary interests were  writing flaky stuff and digging up bones.
  
  
  
• Rocky took two days off instead of his usual one so we decided to take a short road trip to Southern Maryland. We stayed at a very nice place in Port Tobacco. On Thursday morning we  went to the 7:15  Mass at the Carmelite convent  and later we looked  at juvenile cormorants at a near by marina  and visited the oldest continuous parish in America, St. Ignatius at Chapel Point. Father was nice enough to give us an impromptu tour and we prayed at the cemetery. Lunch was at a terrific little La Plata, Maryland diner and then we rolled over to Sacred Heart church for adoration.  For dinner we ate at Galazio's, a very nice Greek restaurant. The next day we went to the Thomas Stone historic site --the ranger gives a great tour---and annual Amish quilt auction and later St. Joseph's in Pomfret for Mass.  The people in this parish are so genuinely nice. I'd be happy to go back.
  
   One thing I really appreciated was that St. Joseph's has a sensible website. When people are traveling and looking for a Mass we don't care about the Little Mother's group, the altar server of the day or the parish mission statement, nor do we want to see pictures of the CCD outing from last year. I really don't care one jot or tittle about how busy  social the parish is. All of that stuff is nice but secondary.  

• Whenever you meet a man who (it's usually men) who wants you to follow him because his Catholicism is cool and edgy and the Holy Spirit told him X, Y or Z and he's written a book....RUN, especially if you are female. In fact any time someone presents you with hip Catholicism you can be sure that at best you have a person who is ashamed of his or her Faith and wants to make it acceptable to the cool kids. 

• The Salem witch trials began because four girls  accused people of incredible and physically impossible acts. The authorities believed them and people went to jail and to their executions. Finally the accusations came so fast and furious and became so ridiculous that the whole thing fell apart. When packs of  adolescent or menopausal females suddenly    began making coordinated attacks it behooves the wise observer to stop and take a minute to wonder if something else isn't going on.  

• Happy Thanksgiving. 

St. Ignatius, pray for us

Man, warrior, priest, saint, many of your sons have lost their minds and are leading the Faithful astray or repulsing them so much that they leave the Church, pray for these sons and pray for us.

Crying wolf?

There's a story from the life of St. Thomas Aquinas about how on a particular day the saint was minding his own business in his monastery when one of his brother monks cried out that a witch was flying by the window on a broomstick. St. Thomas hopped up and rushed to the window to see. The other monk laughed heartily at his successful prank. Pranks are usually a form of hostility and this particular monk seemed to resent St. Thomas's fame for his intellect and relished the chance to make him look foolish in front of the other brothers. St. Thomas responded that he thought it better to believe that a witch could fly past the window than that a monk could tell a deliberate lie.

The St. Thomas story came to my mind when I read that the nun who found Pope John Paul I's body now says that she lied about the details but had a really good excuse. If the nun was lying 40 years ago about who found the body, could she not lie now? If she believed that she had a good reason to lie then could she not believe that she has an even better reason to do so -- getting Pope John Paul I canonized--- today?  Should we not be as aghast as St. Thomas at the thought of a consecrated soul telling a deliberate lie?  Is a small, minor detail being cleared up or is the boy crying wolf...again?

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• "SCROOGE is not only as modern as Gradgrind but more modern than Gradgrind. He belongs not only to the hard times of the middle of the nineteenth century, but to the harder times of the beginning of the twentieth century; the yet harder times in which we live. Many amiable sociologists will say, as he said, "Let them die and decrease the surplus population." The improved proposal is that they should die before they are born.
  
  "It is notable also that Dickens gives the right reply; and that with a deadly directness worthy of a much older and more subtle controversionalist. The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him whether he is the surplus population; or if he is not, how he knows he is not. That is the answer which the Spirit of Christmas gives to Scrooge."~G.K. Chesterton: Introduction to A Christmas Carol. (1922)
  Ole G.K. is never going to be canonized in this era because he was fat, openly disliked Jews, and  if he was not a maintenance alcoholic he appears to modern eyes be pretty darn close, but he was right about a lot of stuff. I remembered this when I read that Prince William thinks the world is overpopulated and that is endangering the wildlife. What the prince means is that the world has too many brown and black and low class white people. I like lions but I'd rather have an African child be able to go to the river and play without being eaten by one. If Prince William and his friends would rather see the child dead and the lion in her place they are the enemy.What ugly people our so-called betters are. 

• Fr. Weinandy got fired. Fr. James Martin is riding high. A relative of mine expressed shock and deep concern about the Church and asked what are we (the Faithful) going to do? I thought about some of the older Catholics that I've met over the years. These people have told of how they used to go miles for a decent Mass or moved out of state. People have gone to Mass in hotel rooms, and funeral home chapels, which to be honest were probably nicer than their old parishes. I read about one group of people who had to go to the (unheated?) cemetery chapel for Mass for years because that was the only place the bishop would allow an indult Mass to be held. I've read stories from people who had and still have to go to Mass in the most crime ridden parts of the city. These people were treated like garbage by Rome and by their fellow Catholics in many ways.
  
   My generation very foolishly thought that the bad times were over and that JPII and B16 were going to fix everything. Well, a lot of us are going to have to learn how to persevere. 

St. Pius V and St. Charles Borromeo, defenders against Islam and Luther, pray for us. 

• I seem to have picked up a troll so I'm going to try comment moderation for a bit. 

November is the month of the Holy Souls

Father's stage "act" gives me indigestion

I saw this video on Hilary White's Twitter and it left me with a sour stomach. When that passed I felt the deep urge to throw down my gauntlet, like a medieval knight.  This is a priest and he's acting like a third rate performer in a run down comedy club.

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, Thou are the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Oh, be in a very special way the Good Shepherd of those poor lost priests who are also appointed by Thee to be leaders of Thy people, but who have broken the oath of their holy ordination and have become unfaithful to their exalted calling. Bestow upon these poorest of the poor the very fullness of that pastoral solicitude with which Thou dost so faithfully seek the sheep that are lost! Touch their hearts with the irresistible ray of grace which emanates from Thine all-merciful love! Enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, that they may turn away from all sin and error and come back to Thy holy altar and to Thy people. O most compassionate Savior! Remember that Thou didst once redeem the souls of Thine erring priests with Thy Precious Blood and in infinite preferential love didst impress upon them the indelible character of the priesthood. Put wholly to shame those miserable helpers of Satan who lay snares for the virtue of priests and endanger the holy ideal of the priesthood. Most graciously accept our prayers and sacrifices for poor priests who have gone astray and hear our earnest petition.

 Amen 

Imprimatur - Bishop John F. Null (April 18, 1948)

St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests

St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests

St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests

St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests

Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.