Good Friday

Thursday

The Protestations of St. Peter

Can Ye Not Watch With Me One Hour?

Peter Went Out and Wept Bitterly

Spy Wednesday

Judas goes to the Chief Priests

The painter, James Tissot does something really clever here. The man in the foreground, should  probably a temple priest or pharisee and presumably agrees with what is happening but he can't help but look disgusted and has found some reason to the leave the room. Tissot uses this unknown man to show the horror of what Judas is doing....selling out the Lord for such a paltry amount, the price of a slave at a time in the world where the supply of slaves was constant and they were very cheap.

Tuesday

Gentiles Ask To See Jesus by James Tissot

The Cornerstone

Woe Unto You Scribes and  Pharisees

Monday

The Chief Priests Take Counsel Together by James Tissot 

The Accursed Fig Tree

Driving Out Them That Sold In the Temple

The Healing of the Lame in the Temple

Jesus Goes Out To Bethany In The Evening

Benedict Does NOT Equal Francis

Palm Sunday

• All this week I've been reading that Benedict was never the orthodox prelate whom we thought he was and that he's really just Francis with class. That is hyperbole. Joseph Ratzinger was never mean, he was never crude and not a single person has come forward to tell a story about how Fr. Ratzinger used to swear and scream when he was unhappy or that he mocked them for being pious. 
  
   Maybe Pope Benedict was just a nice conservative, okay I'll accept that. Church and a social conservatives haven't won a single battle in 50 years but they've tossed off some cute witticisms and I  think deep down the leaders are content with that and many of them dislike the embarrassing Trads more than the out right heretics. Pope Benedict may not have had the courage or ammunition to fight the St. Gallen mafia and it probably would have been better for him if he had refused the papacy to begin with, but I don't think he's sipping on a beer in his apartment thinking, " Francis and I sure fooled those suckers. Hah!" 

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

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. Noll (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.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us

Laws of Days of Abstinence, Penance & Fast

The Letter

What are we to make of Pope Benedict's letter defending Pope Francis as a theologian? Some people say that the letter doesn't sound like Benedict at all and must be fake or he was forced to write it. The fact that the Vatican chose to crudely blur the last two lines of the letter raises alarms.  Hilary White and Steven Skojec  on the other hand, say that Benedict was never what we thought he was and yes, he either wrote the  letter or at least was content to sign what the ghost writer gave him and he is probably just fine with Francis.

 Both Hilary and Steve got gruff to the point of stinging insult with anyone who disagreed with them on Twitter. Who's right? What the Hell is going on? I don't know. All I can say is that Benedict is very old and practically helpless. He's said to be partially blind and prone to falling and he's suffered a dramatic and obvious physical decline. Perhaps if one decent person could go to his chambers with a cell phone, press record and implore, "Speak Papa! Why did you abandon us?," we might learn something but that's not going to happen. Even if someone was bold enough to do it I doubt that the cell phone would make it beyond the Vatican walls or even as far as an elevator.
I am sure of one thing: if you are expecting Benedict to come to the rescue then you will die a disappointed man or woman.  He's too frail now and if it's true, as some whisper that he abdicated as part of a separate peace to protect himself and/or his brother then he's definitely out of the fight.  Lord have mercy.

Things that make you go eww.

• Taylor Marshall, whom I do not care for, says he had a vision of a good looking but sick woman with engorged breasts. Her babies were too afraid to nurse because the mother is poisoned. In the vision Taylor heard a voice tell him that yes Mother is sick but go ahead and eat because the milk is pure.  I watched Mr. Marshall's video twice and I don't know what to make of it. My first reaction was to be repulsed. Taylor you went full Christoper West. Never go full Christopher West.  My second reaction was exasperation. Yes, Holy Mother Church is in a bad, bad way but if  you follow, not trends or heresies but the holy teaching of the Church you won't go wrong. You don't need a vision that sounds like Japanese anime porn to see that. Heck all you have to do is open your eyes and read. 

• After reading this  about the Vatican Easter stamp and how the image of Our Lord makes the heart of "women" flutter, one can only come the conclusion that much of the German hierarchy and their slimy underlings need to be forced to sit down in a locked room and have St. Peter Damian's book read to them ----and what is this disgusting fetish some people seem to have about Archbishop Gänswein’s appearance?

God loves us so much

That He sent His only Son  

to bear this passion for us

and Jesus loves each one of  us so much that 

that He would go this again to save us

What wondrous love. I am struck with awe. May you have a truly blessed Lent.