Mass in a mask

 It's allergy season and I started coughing at Mass. Several people looked at me and gave me some hard stares. I felt Rocky tense up beside me. If anyone had dared to say anything to me he was ready to tell them off. 

Mass before pews

 

Excuse me, I have a nitpick.

 

George Neumayr, confirming what @TaylorRMarshall said yesterday regarding Steubenville: https://t.co/YYqJVzH759 pic.twitter.com/MmrAjEDg9y

— MrCasey (@MrCasey62) August 22, 2020

I don't know anything about the rest of this but the last lines leave me mystified.  Monsignor Jameson, was rector of St. Matthew's Cathedral long before Donald Wuerl arrived from Pittsburgh. 

a beautiful homily for the Feast of the Assumption

 The Assumption was not a Holy Day of obligation this year and there was not a word about it at Mass today. Here's a beautiful homily for the feast. 

and here we are

 

Love and sacrifice

A young priest posted this and some people complained. He pointed out that this quote is from Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the response was silence. Now, if you've read this blog you already know that saying Archbishop Sheen said something is not the end of the conversation for me. Archbishop Sheen was sterling before Vatican II but afterwards he said and did some disappointing things. However, Archbishop Sheen was absolutely correct here. 

Anyone who's been married knows that marriage is not a bed of roses. Romance and  true love are not the same. When my husband's grandfather was dying his wife fed him, bathed him and sat by him until the end.  When my grandfather became bed-ridden, my grandmother had to move the family from the farm to town and get a job as a cook in a local restaurant.  My grandfather died when he was only 51. There are no poems or pop songs about home nursing or watching your fine young husband become helpless.

My husband has sat in waiting rooms while I've had surgeries, medical procedures and doctor visits. He's been there  when I had the flu, bronchitis and migraines. I've taken care of him after his surgeries. And you know what? Those were days of grace. 

When we married my in-laws were not happy. My mother-in-law even called my mother and asked if she couldn't convince me to to get an annulment.  My mom set her straight but the problem remained for years. I was the wrong class and the wrong religion. My husband hung on to me harder. In contrast, when my in-laws overstepped in my brother-in-law's marriage he clung to them and his wife found herself working hard to please Big Daddy and Big Mama. My brother-in-law is divorced today. 

 Love requires sacrifice. It requires bearing with unpleasantness and overcoming our own desire for comfort, laziness or  fun for the sake our beloved. Lady Gaga is not singing about cleaning up your spouse's vomit... for the second time that night. Jay Z and Beyonce are not doing power ballads about standing by your child's grave and being strong for your spouse. Nobody is giving Ted Talks about holding on together  when the factory closes or about going from shopping at Macys to shopping at Goodwill when times get hard. Yeah, there is suffering in marriage along with joy. Pretending that doesn't exist is foolish. 

 

Rest in peace, dear lady

 My mother-in-law had ovarian cancer. She had massive surgery and lived with a colostomy bag for 15 years. All of her friends from the chemo ward died. She held on until a new surgeon was able stitch her together in such a way that she no longer needed the bag. I remember how happy she was when she was able to go to the bathroom like a normal person again. My mother-in-law's insides were held together by prayer and pelvic mesh.  She  survived to see her sons married, and to know her grandchildren. She went back to work but eventually her kidneys, damaged by the chemo, began to fail. She fought every day in some form for 23 years. Ovarian cancer is awful and watching what it did to my mother-in-law left me speechless.  

Geska Lima was a beautiful soul, a great lady whom brightened up Catholic Twitter with her wisdom, her prayers and meditations. She fought her ovarian cancer with great courage and when her doctor's finally told her there was no hope she tried alternative treatments. Now she has passed away. May the angels lead her to Paradise. 

Parents beware

 Two days ago I read a Twitter post by a teacher who was concerned that since he will be teaching via Zoom parents will be able to hear what he's telling the kids about sex issues. Parents, if a grown man wants to talk to your kid without you knowing what he's telling them, something funky is going on. 
If a grown man wants to talk to your kid about sex, something funky is going on. If a grown man frets about how to get around you and calls you a "helicopter" or "snow plow" parent because you pay attention to what he's trying to do then you have a problem. Parents beware and keep your guard up. Any teacher who wants you to leave the room in your own home needs to be challenged and corrected. 

None of this kind of thing is new. Bad people go where the kids are and there have always been teachers who overstepped their bounds. Decades ago, my mother got a phone call from her oldest brother, Jr. He was 17 then and triumphantly told her that "they" (parents) had finally got one of their teachers. The teacher was a pervert who had flirted with and seduced students. When the principal, school board and most importantly, the parents found out he was run out of town and out of the county. 

Go read the Little House on the Prairie series or watch an old movie, particularly an old Western. Teachers were held to a very high standard up until the 60s. Parents demanded that teachers to be as respectable as a nun and before the advent of teacher's unions, teachers got fired and lost their license to teach if there was proof of inappropriate behavior. Why were parents so strict? Because the man or woman who has custody of your child's mind for hours has a powerful impact that can shape or warp them for the rest of their lives. 

Is Biden crazy or crazy like a fox?

 

Joe Biden is not a good Catholic and if he ever was, he hasn't been for decades. I've wondered for some time if he isn't a sly trickster as well. When he pawed and sniffed women and girls in public we saw the people  around him get these stunned looks on their faces or they did the 1000 yard stare. Some people shook their heads and said it just Joe being...eccentric. Others were rightfully appalled and thought he was either losing control of his faculties or a narcissistic pervert or both.

Every now and then I wonder if  the old rogue isn't pulling an I Claudius? Emperor Claudius if you remember from the book and the series, had to pretend to be a harmless, half wit so he would be ignored by his immediate family's enemies. The scene where he is crowned and then stuns all the Roman court by suddenly speaking and behaving normally is still one of the most thrilling I've ever seen. 

Is Biden a pitiful figurehead being used by his family, and some shady characters or is he a straight up villain playing his supporters for useful idiots? Hey, it's 2020. Anything short of zombies and dragons would not surprise me one bit. 

 

I saw this gorgeous Last Supper on the Les Femnes blog