Man of Sorrows

The Orthodoxy attaction

 As I've written before, a lot of people look at  Pope Francis and their  bishops, especially those who got to be bishops because of their McCarrick connections and are horrified.  The horror is compounded when they listen to another wishy washy or blasphemous  homily from Fr. Skippy. These folks, particularly men look at the Orthodox and are awed. Watch the Russian Orthodox Easter or Christmas service on YouTube and you'll see priests who look and sound like men. The churches are gorgeous and lift the mind to meditations on Heaven. They talk about penance, sacrifice, doing hard things like controlling ones own evil passions before presuming to tell the world anything.

Orthodoxy looks pretty good but it's like a make up tutorial. Underneath the paint and powder you have something that has flaws and serious problems on both the secular and sacred levels. Go lurk on any Orthodox discussion site and you'll come away shocked. You think Evangelicals hate Catholics? The Ortho sites are a river of vinegar, urine and bile towards Catholics and the various sects really hate each other. The grass isn't greener on the other side. It's just different grass. 

the Skojec saga isn't over but I think people are starting to realize that something is horribly wrong

 I was  just  looking back at my old posts that mention Steve Skojec. I liked him in the beginning but around 2014, I started noticing that he was changing. He got vicious and seemed to enjoy wallowing in drama. I remember when he attacked Ann Barnhardt's looks and when he later "jokingly" called her insane. That was foul and I don't think anybody in his circle or any professional Catholics publicly called him out on it. Shame on them.  I also remember when he started having tantrums and carrying on claiming to be struggling with his Faith in public.  And then we had the bizarre spectacle of him, a self appointed Catholic influencer who hated praying the Rosary and  didn't even go to Mass. Now he's either apostatized or is flirting with it. 

There are probably many lessons to take from this saga but the one that really captures my attention right now is this: God gave us the Church, the priesthood and the saints. Cling to the Doctors of the Church. Cling to the Catechism. Cling to the sacraments God gave us. Do not make some articulate person with an Internet presence into your Catholic guide. 

 

random thoughts on a Thursday afternoon

"Filthy talk makes us feel comfortable with filthy action..." Pope St. Clement

• Beware of people who crack "edgy" jokes all the time, especially the guy who casually sprinkles "pedo" in his conversation.

• Here's a lesson a lot of people in Virginia learned the hard way with our big snow storm. Emergencies happen so keep a blanket, an extra charger and something to eat in your vehicle at all times. 

•  Back in the 50s parents became alarmed at the content of comic books, particularly the EC Comics, which produced Vault of Horror and Tales From the  Crypt and the Shock Suspense series. The Shock series featured rape, with the rapist almost always being an authority figure, murder in graphic ways, mob attacks being a special favorite of the writers, cannibalism and adultery. Eventually Congress got involved and EC was forced to tone their stories down. For most of my life I've read commentaries bemoaning this because it was parental "hysteria," "Puritanism" and McCarthyism. Well, I've read some of these stories and they were not stuff that kids should have been reading. The folks who protested were right. I have to wonder how much damage this lurid stuff did to the minds of the Baby Boomers who read it.  The attack on children's innocence has been going on for a long, long time.
  
  
  
  
• A palate cleanser...

 

Man of Sorrows

 This painting is incredible not only because of the halo which made of up the instruments of Our Lord's Passion but because Botticelli must have spent some time studying the Shroud or the Holy Face image in the Vatican. The wounds from the crown (cleaned up I'm guessing to allow the viewer to gaze upon the Face), and the swelling lip instantly reminded me of the Shroud .