In your charity...

In your charity could you say a prayer for this good son, his devoted wife and his mother who is going through a great physical and emotional trial?

Question time for my pastor

I asked Fr. Hawk about the Eucharistic fast question that came up last week. He told me to be at peace.   I am free to do more than what the Church gives as a bare minimum but there is no shame or insult to the Lord on the part of average Joe or Jane Catholic in the doing the one hour fast. Father himself fasts from midnight but pointed out that  he also says Mass at 8:30 in the morning. 

TV chefs and tales from the hotel

 My mother was a hotel housekeeper and supervisor for thirty years. She got to see and hear a lot of things. Rich people and business people on expense accounts tend to let their hair down in various ways  when they travel.  While natural deaths in the hotel were not uncommon, suicides were so rare that it only happened twice in my mother's memory. One woman took pills and another hung herself. When  the houseman let himself in he saw her swinging. He staggered back and swooned from the hideous sight.

When TV chef, Anthony Bourdain  hung himself he left a horrible scene for the hotel staff who found him. Some poor person had see his discolored face and what was on the floor. Somebody had to cut him loose. Somebody had to cart his body away. Somebody had to clean up and as soon as the police say that the hotel can rent it out again some staff member is going to have to force themselves to go back into that room and carry on as if nothing happened there. According to the coroner's report there were no drugs in Bourdain's system so his embrace of self annihilation  came from a source  other than being high. Whatever his reasons were, there's nothing romantic in what he did or the mess that he made for innocent people, including his child.

JOHN, LIKE A SPEEDING BULLET..

 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

When Father  read these words   an image suddenly popped into my mind of St. John sitting around minding his own business when he is told, "It's time." Did an angel come to him like Gabriel did to his father? Did he have a vision of God or did the Lord send Elijah to him? However the word of God came to John he had his marching orders. The boy who was born to Zachariah and Elizabeth in their old ages was a man now, a man with a mission and like a bullet he was off. He would not tarry, or stop or turn from his path until his death. 

A reckoning has finally come for Uncle Ted

Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my King, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies. Cardinal Wolsey

(Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2) 

Well, the rumors about Cardinal McCarrick that have been festering for decades have finally come to a head.   There will be no more whispered sardonic quips about  Cardinal McCarrick and his "nephews." A lot of people-- seminarians who never got ordained, priests, and laity  have been waiting for this day. I hope it gives them some measure of peace.

Philip Lawler wonders how it went on so long. It's because when people like Richard Sipe , Randy Engel and Matt Abbott called the cardinal  out  publicly they were met with thick, smooth silence.   Julia Duin, formerly a religion editor for the Washington Times says that from 2008 to 2010, she investigated the allegations but couldn't find anyone who would dare go public with their accusations. Rod Dreher says he's known since 2002, when he was contacted by a priest who went to Rome with a group of laymen to protest the appointment of then Archbishop McCarrick to cardinal of DC because of his history of harassing seminarians and young priests. That protest was ignored or rejected when the cardinal retired in 2006, he was allowed to take up residence in the Redemptorist Mater seminary in Maryland.

Cardinal McCarrick is 87. He was powerful, not as powerful as Cardinal Wolsey in his prime of course, but having done such a miserable job of serving Our Lord and His Church he is now naked to his enemies.  If there is anyone out there reading this who was one the nephews or refused to be one, NOW is the time to speak up. McCarrick can't do anything to you. FIAT JUSTITIA RUAT  CAELUM.

St. Francis has something to tell you

“Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received...but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.”

St. Francis of Assisi

At prayer and random thoughts

• Last night I ate something that fought back and I was sick from 3 AM to about 5 AM. I normally do a light cleaning on Saturdays and save the deep clean for once a month but as soon as I stopped feeling shaky I had to get out the Hexol and get to work. Saint Zita and Martha, patronesses of housekeepers pray for us...
  
  
  
  
• This sister belongs to the Holy Child nuns who are at my old elementary school now.

• Rocky got off work early yesterday and we stopped by our parish to pray because big dogs in the corporate office have lost their minds...again and it makes life difficult for the managers.  We walked in and the Spanish baptism class was just breaking up. They looked at us like we were invading their space.  I am highly sensitive to non verbal cues and I could almost feel the unfriendly stares. Rocky is not sensitive that way but he felt it too and was mightily pissed. That was just a tiny illustration of what goes on at many suburban parishes. The Spanish speakers are uncomfortable when Americans are present.  The Americans won't even set foot in the church until the Spanish parishioners leave or if they do accidentally go in while the Spanish speakers are there, they get this crazy look on their faces and flee. Perhaps it comes from the Vatican II mindset of "my Mass" and nobody else is part of this parish or perhaps it's what I believe to be the poisonous fruit of the US decision to split Catholics up based on ethnicity. Catholic means universal. There is no slave or free, no Jew nor Greek in the church. We are all supposed to be Catholic. aren't we? It's not supposed to be about us anyway. It's supposed to be about Him.
  
  
• My Aunt Evangeline died. She was 83 and my late father's eldest sibling. She had ten children and  was a comforting angel to many people her her town. She was like the Valiant Woman of the Old Testament. When she was young she had masses of long black hair and when  I was five I thought she looked just like Loretta Lynn. May she rest in peace.
  
  
• Up until the 19th century we had debtor's prison. In England the whole family could go to jail with the debtor. The family could come and go as they pleased but the debtor was not at liberty until he served his time or the debt was paid. A lot of people, Charles Dickens being one thought this was terrible. Dickens himself had to leave school at 12 years old to help support the family. Today we don't do this sort of thing. When you commit a crime you go to jail or prison and your kid either goes to relatives, foster care, orphanage or a group home. Our bishops want illegal aliens to have their families with them while waiting in detention and while doing and saying nothing to politicians who are public sinners, are actually proposing the threat of  "canonical penalties" to Catholics who administer our immigration laws. Are they seriously going excommunicate someone who calls the police after noticing that there are ten people in their  neighbor's shed who arrived in a truck during the night and  who will disappear in a few days like the last bunch did?  Are they really going to excommunicate every Catholic man and woman who works for the border patrol and ICE?  Yes they make a lot of money from immigration (go to  USAspending.gov  and put "U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops"  in the search box) and I see that they're going to fight to keep it but this proposal is insane and will drive people from the Church. 

Question time for my pastor

Ann Barnhardt has a new post on the Eucharistic Fast that really got my attention and left me feeling a bit worried. She's absolutely right about the softness of the one hour fast. For most people who aren't sick or who don't work a non 9-5 shift it is easy.What alarmed me was her argument that the three hour fast  isn't much better because the stomach is not empty and if one really loves the Lord, volunteering to do the fast from midnight to Mass is a better practice. I started wondering if I am actually showing Our Savior a rank insult by practicing the one hour fast. I'm going to ask Fr. Hawk (that's his nick name because he rather resembles a Red Shouldered Hawk) what he thinks.

Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

June is the month of the Sacred Heart. I neither acknowledge, bow my head nor bend my knee to 
anything else.

I know someone who married a narcissist. He isolated her and made the rest of us think that she was crazy. Eventually she stopped the gas-lighting and left him.  Looking back on it, I now remember certain things he did or said and realize that he was telling us all what kind of man he was but we just didn't see it. It was as if he'd worked some kind of glamour* that masked his true self. Bad people always tell us exactly who they are. The elites hate ordinary people. Deep down, hate is their meat and drink. They can't just enjoy their money leave the rest of us in peace. The urge to dominate, destroy and make the victim say "thanks," is just too demonically strong. Sometimes it takes wisdom to recognize this and sometimes it's so obvious that even a blind man can see when the glamour weakens and the mask slips off. 

• A comedian said publicly that he hopes the economy crashes into another Great Depression and regular American suffer because the person he voted for didn't win the presidency. Most of his fans laughed at his witty little "joke".....
  
  
• Anthony Bourdain  apparently hanged himself with his own bathrobe belt. The elites call this a tragedy but  cheer when the old, the depressed and the sick are coerced into "assisted suicide" or when babies are dismembered, stabbed or poisoned in abortion....
  
  
  
•  The pope says even the poor must do their part to save the earth and give up using fossil fuel. Taken to the extreme that means no cooking, heating one's home or traveling further than your horse can carry  you. This sounds like something out of the gulags. The pope himself has not pledged to never get on a plane again and remain in Rome for the rest of his papacy and I haven't heard anyone complaining about heat and body odor at the Vatican because of the lack of air conditioning.....

• In England the authorities have known for decades that poor girls and girls in foster care frequently fall victim to slick talking, seducing pimps and did nothing. Social workers and police officers who tried to their jobs were told to hush because the girls were just fast, common little tramps anyway and anyone who interfered were racists. I've never seen a single news/gossip story about an upper class 13 English year old girl openly "dating" a Pakistani man with her parent's approval. Funny that....

*Glamour

noun

• 1. the quality of fascinating, alluring, or attracting, especially by a combination of charm and good looks.
  2. excitement, adventure, and unusual activity:the glamour of being an explorer.
  3. magic or enchantment; spell; witchery.

Holy Family

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.