So......I guess this means there won't be a canonization for this one?

 He also called her a bruja which means "witch," in Spanish. Depending on which Latin American country you come from it could also mean :

• sorceress  
• hag  
• female dog  (I'm being reserved here. The actual word starts with the letter B)
• crone 
  
  To those who say ignore his moment of temper I must point out that he's the pope. The standards that Our Lord set for him are higher than anyone else's. Argentinians say he has a nasty temper and there have been reports coming out of the Vatican that when he's angry he gets loud and vulgar. Forget the photo ops. This is Franics live, raw, unedited. 

The Burning Babe

The Burning Babe

BY ROBERT SOUTHWELL SJ

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,

Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;

Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed

As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.

“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,

Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!

My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,

Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;

The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,

The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,

For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,

      So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”

      With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,

      And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

Thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven

 

“While all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne.”


- Wisdom 18

Christmastide

Puer Natus Est

God bless you all

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son

Puer Natus Est

How to Survive Midnight Mass as a Visitor

1. Feed the kids. Make the little one's take a nap. Don't expect a tired toddler who's off his schedule to act like a cherub. Provide them with liquid and then take them all to the bathroom before Mass.
   
2. Get to Mass early. Sit down. Do not go into the narthex  and socialize or your spot on the pew won't be there when you get back.
   
3. If you have climb over people in the pews the saints will let it go but the regular ones will give you the stink eye.
   
4. No. Nobody wants to scoot over so you can fit in if you arrive late. Sorry.
   
5. EWTN does commentary throughout for big TV Masses. You don't need to. If you need to explain to your brother-in-law who has come to Mass for the first time, do so  quietly.
   
6. Unless it is a service dog do not bring your pet to Mass. I know he's cute and he probably is better behaved than most of the kids but no, that's not right.
   
   
7. If your teenager demands to come to Mass in a strapless dress that comes down to her thigh, yes people are going to look.
   
   
8. If your teenager is angry and behaves rudely don't spend the entire Mass angrily hissing at her or you'll become bigger distraction than you realize-- yes I have seen this.
   
   
9. Remember, real life is not a Hallmark movie. Smell the incense. Calm down. Close your eyes. Rejoice, for Christ has come. 

The Nativity

Do you STILL have your Netflix account?

Why? Can't you give up one amusement for the Lord? 

At prayer

random thoughts on Saturday afternoon

• I really wasn't enthusiastic about making Archbishop Fulton Sheen a saint. However, Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Cupich and Archbishop Matano of Rochester objecting to his beatification and getting the cause shut down is highly suspect.
  
  
  
• You know that dollar you gave to the Peter's Pence collection? It may have gone to help fund a movie about Elton John. 
  
  
• First we get Pachamama and now the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was not a holy day of obligation in the US this year. Interesting.
  
  
  
  
• I think Fr. Leonard Feeney got excommunicated not so much for heresy but because he had so many enemies in the clergy. He seemed to loathe any priest who was a public figure. He wrote critically of Fr. Knox, Thomas Merton, then Fr. Avery Dulles, most heads of Catholic colleges,  Fr. Keller of the Christophers and Archishop Sheen. He probably wasn't too complimentary to other priests he didn't like in person either. He also had quite a lot to say about Cardinal Cushing, none of which was "He's a jolly good fellow." I'm guessing that  there were many Jesuits and other priests all who had been doing a slow burn about him for years and when the excommunication happened whiskey flasks and champagne corks got opened in quite a few rectories around the country. 

Cancel your Netflix

Netflix is launching a movie that portrays Our Lord as a homosexual. Over a million people have signed a petition protesting this. That's nice but nice is worthless in a fight. People, you don't need to sign a petition. You don't need to say anything publicly at all. Just love Our Lord enough to cancel your Netflix. Jesus will know why you did it or didn't do it and that is all that matters.

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

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.