See what we've been reduced to

Rocky usually stops in a church on the way home from work to do his holy hour. He was struck by the elaborate directional arrows at this parish and saddened by the closing of the Adoration chapel. 

Be discreet and protect your priest

Do you have a good priest who is not going to call the police on you if you take your mask off at Mass? Great. Don't put his name and parish on social media and don't post photos. You will surely get the priest into trouble with his bishop and you might be the reason why there's no more Mass at your parish. You could also get the priest in trouble with the law. Some states are sending spies to churches to look for violations.  Law enforcement has shown up at churches. Priests and Protestant clergy have been threatened with jail time. Be discreet.  Sensus Fidelium has a sobering video on this topic. 

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• In your charity could you pray for the mother of a friend of mine? She was taken by ambulance to the hospital yesterday. Her doctor would not see her until her COVID test came back negative but by the time it did she was in bad shape.  
  
  
  
  
  
• I've read numerous stories about how Bill Gates's vaccines have damaged women and children in India and at least one African country but his defenders always say this was  just a bad batch of vaccine or that sometimes people have bad reactions and the individual tragedies don't matter in the face of the greater good.  Think about the women and girls who ended up sterilized. What kind of life do they have now? Infertility is considered a curse in many cultures and it's not uncommon for a man to cast aside a wife who can't have children or to take a second wife. A young girl who has been sterilized faces no chance of marriage.  That bad batch of vaccine has doomed her to a life of loneliness, and degradation. Nobody in her village is going to marry her.  If she's lucky she can stay with her family and be a beloved aunt. If she's not lucky she could end up as a prostitute. Knowing this how on earth can people spout those flippant bad batch excuses. 
  
  
  
  
  
• There once was a writer who had a beautiful blog. Her writing was elegant, her vocabulary was obviously that of a highly educated person and her devotional posts were inspiring. Despite all this I was not fond of her. She had that habit of humble bragging, which I cannot stand. Don't call me a worldling because I take a day trip to the lake or shop at  Walmart when you are jetting off to Europe twice a year with  the excuse that you're going on pilgrimage or an "important conference". I stopped reading her. 
  
  
  
  
  
• I refuse to receive Communion in the hand so Rocky has had to ask priests for the Precious Blood for me. So far they've been willing.
  
  
  
  
• Msgr. Bastress who was the pastor at Saint Alphonsus in Baltimore was a kind, patient man. I went to Mass there twice. May he rest in peace. If it wasn't for him many people in more than one state would not have had access to the traditional Mass. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• One sign that the Catholic Church is the only one is that the forces of evil always go after our churches. Nobody cares about the Mormons or the Seven Day Aventists. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Never trust anyone who constantly cracks  pedophilia jokes. They aren't being "edgy," they are telling you what they find fascinating. 

I thought this was a joke

It's not.  

I bet this story won't become national news

Folks we're in trouble.