Domine, non sum dignus!

Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

The Centurian recognized the Truth when the wisest men in the Temple did not. The Church remembers his words forever.

Institute of Catholic Culture

On April 3rd, at 7:30 PM there will be solemn vespers and benediction in the Tridentine form at St. Mary's in Alexandria, VA. Fr. Scalia, who we nicknamed Fr. Aragon when he was still at St. Rita's will be presiding. I'm looking forward to seeing something I've never seen before.

Martin von Feuerstein

Years ago Rocky and I walked into St. James in Falls Church, Virginia and I saw  amazing Stations of the Cross. I tried to find out who the painter was but no-one knew. Later we visited another church in the Ricmond diocese and they had the same Stations but in mosaics. I kept looking on Google and I finally found out who the painter was. Martin von Feurstein was a famous artist in Germany. His art is in serveral German churches and cathdrals. He was also an art professor and a serious Catholic. This painting is a self portrait that shows his decision to dedicate his talents to the service of Christ.

The Japanese have been impressive

We haven't heard any reports of looting, rapes, or anyone blocking roads or shooting at aid workers.

Sorrowful Mysteries

Agony in the Garden

Scourging at the Pillar

Crowning with thorns

Jesus takes the cross*

The Crucifixion

* I especially love the Martin Feurstein's painting of Jesus taking the cross. It's stylized of course, but just look at His glowing face. He's reaching out to embrace the cross as if it were a beautiful thing instead of an object of horror. The priests, pharisees, and the Romans thought they were in charge but they knew nothing. Our Lord laid down His life  for love of sinners and three days later He took it up again. He was in charge and this painting does a good job showing it.

Random thoughts

• I've read a couple of blog entries on the Ash Wednesday  MassFlash mob that seemed to think the spectacle was cute. It wasn't. The purpose of Mass is adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and reparation..Anything else no matter how "charming" or "relevant" is just straw for gold.

• Hilary White, one of my favorite  bloggers has cancer. In your charity please pray for her. She's a peppery and tough woman but this is a hard blow.
  
• In Texas a pack of 20 boys and adult males raped an 11 year old girl. I realize that there are men who hate women and some of them have good reasons. I have an uncle whose treacherous wife divorced him right after she graduated from college and left him with nothing but a few pieces of furniture that he owned before the marriage. She took the kids, found their care to be too much for her gave them back to him but he still has to pay her alimony. I realize that the feminist movement unleashed horrors that we can't put back in the box. I have an inkling of understanding of what it must be like for most black boys raised by a young and foolish single mother who was herself probably ill used by an older man. The most dangerous person in a kid's life is his mom's new man. That new man may last a weekend or he may hang around abusing the kids for years. This is so common that cops and CPS workers call it mommy's boyfriend syndrome. And I know our society is so busy cheering on the single mom (You go, girl!) that there seems to be no place for the adult survivors of mom's boyfriends to vent. All that is true and terrible but why, oh why take all that rage out on an eleven year old girl?
  Lord have mercy. St. Maria Goretti, St. Germaine, St. Dymphna, Blessed Alexandrina, Blessed Karolina Kozkowna, and Blessed Albertina pray for this poor child. St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Salvo and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati pray for all the angry, neglected boys who think that women are the enemy. Oh Blessed Virgin, be their example of womanhood!

• This lad has decided to fast all Lent on just beer. Bless his heart. I hope someone gets a photo of what he loooks like by Easter.
  
• This Lent I'm going to do a devotion that I'd never even heard of before. I'm reading the seven penitential psalms every day.

Mater Dolorosa

Shahbaz Bhatti

His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'

St. Katherine Drexel, a magnificent woman

St. Katherine was not only a holy woman but she was a truly magnificent one as well. She was loving towards and used her own money to help two of the most despised groups in America at the time: Indians and blacks.  She was a great friend to Fr. Tolton, the first openly black priest in America. When she created Xavier University, a black college, many whites in Louisiana were horrified. She was opposed and threatened on occasion but the hard headed little lady from Pennsylvania kept right on.

In memoriam

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
 
Two American airmen were murdered in Frankfurt, Germany by a Muslim from Kosovo. The coverage in the media has been pathetic. We know more about what's on what's left of Charlie Sheens' brain than we know about the killer of our fellow Americans.

Thank you, St. Alphonsus!

My mother had surgery on her arthritic knee this afternoon and it went beautifully. The surgeon was delighted with the results. Rocky and I are very thankful.

The other Teresa

She read the autobiography of St. Therese and was inspired to pursue a vocation as a Carmelite. After she entered the convent her letters to friends and relatives were filled with such joy that some of the recipients entered religous life as well. She contracted typhus and shortly before her death at age 20, she wrote, "For a Carmelite, death has nothing to be afraid of. She is going to live her true life. She is going to fall into the arms of the one who loved her here on earth beyond all things".
She is St. Teresa of the Andes.

Wedding beauty

Usually when I look at other people's wedding picturess my silent reaction is "meh", but the sweetness and beauty of this wedding of a young English couple really charmed me. What a lovely Mass. It's too bad this isn't an option for most couples.

strange days

Tolerance? Yeah right. This stuff is about the power to frighten people into shutting up.

Oh good grief

I rarely bother with Inside Catholic anymore but when I do, I find sad little essays like this . You wonder why so many 20somethings have left the Church? It's not for love of Facebook. Young people usually leave the Church not because of some great trauma but because for many of them, there is nothing to hold them. Chad and Jessica may not hate their parish but they sure don't  love it. Their parishes are nice, very nice but fail miserably to show Jesus as anything more than their nonjudgmental buddy in heaven. To paraphrase Archbishop Fulton Sheen many parishes fail to image the real  Christ who  makes us "hate evil with a passionate intensity, and love goodness to a point where we can drink death like water."
My generation, the one before the Millennials  were fed an ooey gooey, pretty pony gospel instead of the Faith that sustained the martyrs. Most of us grew up in parishes that were repulsive.The music, the teen masses, the rap sessions (shudder) and the Youth Leader were supposed to be relevant but were quite lame and we knew it. We had too many effeminate priests who looked and behaved like they were put together by the ladies gardening committee. The brave and devout young man who felt called to be a priest faced spending his life with such fellows as companions and superiors. Is it any wonder that many a vocation withered on the vine?  The girl who wanted to be like St. Therese found a convent full of Sr. What's Cool Now and Sr. Feminist. Naturally, she fled and didn't persevere in her vocation.

Things are better now.  With only one exception I haven't met a priest who was ordained after 1990, who used the "priest voice" or made me doubt his masculinity. Healthy religious orders are booming and we are seeing young habited nuns again but the damage is done. People talk about the 20 somethings as a lost generation when they ought to be talking about the lost generations and Facebook had nothing to do with it.

No matter what you've done you can repent

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was big time abortionist and he was so committed to killing babies that when he got one of his girlfriends pregnant he coldly and calmly aborted the child himself. That's right, he killed his own son. In the 1970s Dr. Nathanson saw ultasound pictures and something in him was touched. He stopped doing abortions, became a pro-life activist and converted to the Faith. Years ago, I read his book Hand of God and I never forgot it. Rest in peace Dr. Nathanson.

Thank you

Thank you to all the men and women who looked Nazi's straight in the eye and lied about the Jews or the Allied soldiers hidden in the barn.....

Thank you to all the reporters who pretended to be tourists and returned home to tell  the true story of what was going on in the Congo, Armenia, Russia...ect.

Thank you to the peasants who snuck food into the prisoners held by the Moors.....

Thank you to all the good women in Russia, Spain and  Mexico who hid priests......

Thank you to the woman who hid the Valencia chalice in her coat and walked right past the evil men who wished to despoil the Valencia cathedral and take the chalice as a trophy....

Thank you earnest Quaker ladies who made your homes hiding places for the Underground Railroad.....

Thank you recusant Catholics who risked your own lives to keep the Faith alive in England.....

Thank you, to all those did and dared for the sake of good  while lesser people sat at home fat and happy and critical.

Two songs in memory of my great grandmothers

I can't believe this

According to the people who run this site, on March 19, to the 23rd, Our Lady is scheduled to appear in Alabama. I am shocked and embarrassed because non Catholics will see this specatacle and they will be pushed further away from the Church. I'm horrified because devout Catholics will be hoodwinked.

Once, years ago, an old priest went to Medjogorje watched what was going on and then cried with grief. He later wrote "What have they done to you, my Lady?" The Mother of God does not appear by command. She is not a performer. No seer before Medjugorje has ever used their visions like parlor tricks.  This supposed visit to Alabama is just a carnival. I can imagine the carnival barker now: "Greetings folks, you say you can't make it the former Yugoslavia? No problem, we have a seer who will come to Birmingham and have a vision right in front of you."

 Can you imagine St. Bernadette going to New York and having visions on command for the gawkers? Can you imagine St. Catherine Laboure making a lucrative career out of her visions of Mary? The surviving seers of the approved Rwanda apparitions do not travel all over the world and I don't recall Sr. Agnes of Akita doing a road tour either. 

Oh Mary, exteriminatrix of heresy, pray for us.

Confession, 1872

Strong Women

Resolute

Courageous

Gallant

Faithful unto death

What's up?

Is the current level of acesss* to the Tridentine Mass in danger? Today on Fr. Z's blog he wrote cryptically about the  Summorum Pontificum being altered in some way. On the Rorate Caeli blog the comments ranged between hopeful, to disgusted to completely disheartened. What's up? Are people being hysterical or is there something to this talk?





* I know there are people who are not impressed by the number of TLMs available in the US but it's a larger number than I've ever seen in my lifetime so I don't want to complain.

TEOTWAWKI

I've read several blogs that talk about preparing for nationwide end of the world as we know it situations. Most of the bloggers expect either a financial collaspe along the lines of what happened in Argentina or a massive terrorist attack. They all counsel that people should calmly get ready and expect the worst. It's not very comforting.

My mother in law is on dialysis, my father in law, Big Daddy is a diabetic, and so is my mother. Rocky takes two medicines daily and if there is ever is a true apocalyptic TEOTWAWKI situation no amout of stockpiled food or weapons is going to save my family.

God have mercy.

The end game

You may think, oh it's just poor little England but I suspect that what starts with the Anglicans will grow. It's like California. We laugh and call that state the land of fruits and nuts say "Well that might be okay in California, but it will never fly here." And sure enough the weird or silly Cali fad goes nationwide. Remember palimony? Remember how ridiculous it seemed to think that a concubine could demand and get a financial commitment from a man that was equal to that of a wife's?
The end game is coming in just a decade or so and it's going to be this: either allow gays to have their weddings in our churches or face fines and even jail. 

St. John Fisher, pray for us.

You can't even imagine how much He suffered for you

Go to confesson.

You can't even imagine how much how much He loves you. No matter how far or how low you have fallen, He wants take you back. So whether you use the confession app or a paper list or find yourself  stammering out your sins with tears and trembling, just do it.

Bernadette

She was sick for most of her life. The best home her father could provide was a hovel. She was a peasant girl with hardly any education. She spoke a dialect instead of proper French. Her own mother doubted her at first. She was persecuted by an unbelieving bitter nun. She suffered horribly before her death. She counted this all as nothing because she saw the Queen of Heaven. This little French maiden obeyed, overcame and rose to great hights of holiness. She is a saint in Heaven.

St. Bernadette, pray for us.

No confession App. needed

In the olden days people managed to get to confession and tell their sins all on their own. The new confession App for your Smart phone is cute but we really don't need it.

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

I've noticed some smugness about Fr. Euteneur in certain circles. That's not good. I was never a fan of his but I don't get a kick out of seeing his situation. When a priest gets into difficulty it's a terrible thing.

Jesus, Savior of the world, sanctify Thy priests and sacred ministers.



Thundersnow and a modest swan

Last week we had a thunder snow. The booming thunder, blue lightning and the big, wet and heavy fast falling snowflakes made an impressive sight. Sadly, I slipped and fell down hard on the platform at the train station while trying to get home and spent the next day nursing my scrapes and bruises in bed.

The next couple of days were better. We went to Baltimore for a friend's birthday and first went to Mass at the St. Jude Shrine. The priest there is a good confessor and extremely jolly. He reminded me of a thin Friar Tuck. The only real flaw was the small army of Eucharistic Minister ladies. They weren't needed because even when the pews are full the shrine is actually much smaller and more intimate than it looks. The gem of the shrine is Andre, the head usher. He knows everything and is so patient with tourists and is a genuinely devout man, God bless him.

We went to the DC Car show on Sunday afternoon and I found looking at the people was just as interesting as gawking at the cars. I was struck by two things: leggings should not be worn as pants with a short top and that the more modestly dressed ladies far looked better than the rest of us. I saw a young Orthodox Jewish lady with her husband and five kids. She wore an exquisite looking scarf, a well fitting little sweater and a long velvet skirt with ballerina flats. She glided through the Convention Center like a swan amidst a flock of stewing hens. That woman looked elegant, charming and definitely not frumpy.

King of Kings

England is toast

Practising Muslims will outnumber Christians in England soon. Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for your people.

Take up thy cross

Sweet Jesus, give me the strength to bear my own cross

So, where are the feminists?

Have you noticed that not one prominent feminist has said jack about Dr. Gosnell, the Philadelphia butcher? Feminism is for women who, like Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, smash up things, societies and creatures and go on to their next obsession leaving other people to deal witht the wreckage. They don't care about the rest of us as long as they get what they want.

They will not condemn an abortion clinic that has cat urine and feces all over the place. They will not condemn blood caked tables and recliners. They will not utter a peep of protest about the unsterilized instruments of death. Why not? Becuase if they do, they might have to look at the "nice"abortion clinics they go to. Far better for a poor, black girl in the ghetto to be maimed or dead than that they should have a moment's pause about their precious cause. They are like Gollum and his infernal ring.

Dr. Gosnell's house of horrors

Many people are agog because of the horrifying story coming out of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gosnel lopened up an abortion clinic in his own neighborhood and specialized in killing late term babies. He delivered them alive and then killed them. He also maimed his patients on occasion, used unsterilized instruments, let his cats use the whole place as their litter box, and killed at least two women. The place stank, he had blood stained sheets and blankets and nobody at the Health Department seemed to give a damn.

I'm not shocked at all. In every abortion clinic, even the best decorated and most sanitary, babies are slaughtered. Every room is a Thunderdome. Two humans, mother and child go in, only one goes out. Dr. Gosnell was a sadist but do you think abortonists are nice people? Sadism is part of the job.

Every abortion clinic is filled with demons, every abortion clinic is a charnel house. Dr. Gosnell simply didn't bother to even try to sugar coat it. He and his staff will do some jail time and maybe a low level Pennsylvania official will lose his job but in the end the money will keep rolling in and the slaughter will go on somewhere else.

Random thoughts as a migraine comes storming in

• Lately, reading Fr. Z's blog been a bit of an awkward experience. It was particularly disturbing last month. I'm trying to be subtle here but I really wish he'd drop that donation button. If people want to send him stuff that's cool but ASKING for specific items seems...


• A married Australian woman had an abortion because she was carrying twin boys and she wanted a girl. She and her wretched husband are planning on trying for a girl again. Since she used IVF to get pregnant there's no telling how many precious lives were destroyed so that these people can have what they want. When I think of the child I lost a few years ago I find myself wishing that this horrible female is struck barren instead.
  
• If a man committed murder you'd say how horrible that was. If a woman gets an abortion most people pity her. That's peculiar.


• Have you ever noticed that when people start gassing on about civility what they really mean is "Shut up and do as I say,?"


• I hope that one day the craze of candlelight vigils, pep rally memorials teddy bear shrines for adults goes out of style.


• Remember the 80s when everybody loved the Taliban because they were fighting the Russians? In retrospect, we should've minded our own business.
  


• Trust Pope Benedict. We don't understand everything. Some things may be head scratchers but trust in our shepherd. He has been given to us by God.
  
  


• If Catholics would just ignore Fr. Cutie he'll go away. Let him peddle his book to the Protestants. He demands attention. Don't give it to him.
  May God have mercy on him and may the poor man recover his vocation and senses.

Three fascinating blogs

The Pulpit

New Theological Movement

Traditional Latin Mass in Maryland I could spend hours reading this one.

Beatification

Pope John Paul II will be beatified this year on the feast of the Divine Mercy. I'm not sure this is a good idea. Before anybody gets mad, let me try to explain. I don't doubt JPII's personal holiness but five years is too soon to beatify anybody but a martyr and St. Margaret Clitherow, who did die a hideous death for the Faith in 1586 had to wait until 1970 to be cannonized. St. Therese waited 20 years I think, and St. Thomas Moore waited for hundreds of years. St. Joan of Arc was burnt in 1431. She was only officially beatified in 1909! St. Pio and St. Andre Bessette, with hundreds of known miracles in their lifetimes and afterwards waited decades for their recent cannonizations.

The Church traditionally waited, prudently for emotions to die down and for uncritical fans or hate blinded critics to cool off or die off. The Church also had the position of the devil's advocate -- a man whose job it was to look for anything that would prove that a person was not a saint. This method served the Church well.

I'm not knocking John Paul, I loved him. A photo of him has been in my bedroom since I was a child but I think this is all too soon.

Mary, Virgo Prudentissima, who John Paul II loved and was loved by, pray for us.

Malevelence has a face.

I didn't say anything about the Giffords shooting because frankly, the worthless partisan jackasses in the media have over hyped the story in an effort to gin up hysteria. I'm pretty sick of it and have been avoiding the news all weekend. One thing struck me today though. I saw a picture of the killer and was startled. He's supposed to be in his early 20s but he looks ancient. He resembles nothing less than a cross between Hanibal Lecter and the devil's spawn from The Passion of the Christ. When the mind and soul are clouded it shows in some people.

A staggering statistic

In New York City nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion. Considering how big New York is, that's staggering. Abraham Lincoln once said that he feared that every drop of blood drawn by the slaver's lash would have to be paid for. And it was by millions of men from the North and South in the Civil War. If you stop to think about all the babies that have been aborted as part of the law of the land in America it chills to the heart to think about how that blood is going to be paid for.

Well this is embarassing

A Spanish youth group is raisng money by selling a calendar showing themselves in very nearly naked poses in scenes from the Holy Passion. Wow. I don't know what the priests and nuns (if they have any) at this parish have been teaching but something obviously got lost along the way.

Painted babies in the public eye

The Anchoress is upset because French Vogue used little girls as models in the December issue. One of the commenters mourned that humanity is dying. That's hyperbole. Humanity isn't dying. Western Humanity, in particular, is regressing to what was common before Christianity and what is common in most of Asia, Arabia and Africa. Child marriage and sexual mutilation is normal in several Muslim countries, they fetishize school girls in Japan, rape babies in South Africa and we all know what Thailand is famous for.

Back in the ancient times, unless you were rich, most people got rid of their "useless" daughters as soon as they hit puberty. Childhood did not exist really for boys or girls. You were a baby and then as soon as you could be useful you were used. The Moloch worsipers burned their babies alive in order to please their god. The Greeks and Romans openly practiced infanticide. Indians in what is today called Peru, sacrificed their most beautiful children to their gods.
After a long stretch of Christian progress the status of women and children has fallen back to ancient times. We can work outside the home (big whoop, women have always worked outside the home and have all the abortions our poor bodies can handle whether it gives up breast cancer later or not) but we are more sex objects now than ever before. It's all we are to many men. And Satan is not just satisfied with us. He and his minions are after the little girls. It didn't start yesterday either. Brooke Shields was a sex symbol before she was even 13. The "sophisticated" cocktails-in- the-Ivory Tower set is pleased that we are regressing to the pre-Christian era but the rest of us are catching on to the horror. We need a religious revival and quick.

St. Louis de Monfort, who converted millions, pray for us.
The Carmelite martyrs, whose deaths woke up the murderous mob and led to the end of the French Revolution, pray for us.
St. Maria Goretti, who fought for her purity, forgave and converted a hardened sinner, pray for us.
St. Agnes, who's holiness shamed the brothel goers, pray for us.
St. Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, virgin and warrior, pray for us.
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. We don't deserve your prayers, Mother but oh, how we need them!

Thank God, this kind of thing is dying out

Apparently the priest in this video has a live baby for Christmas Mass every year. Thank God that the showman priests who make the Mass about them and their cleverness are going into retirement. The sooner this kind of silliness dies out the better. Mass shouldn't be cute, irreverent or dumb as dirt. The worship of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is not a pageant for kindergartners. Can you imagine St. John Vianney or St. Pio doing this?

Epiphany

Mass at St. Rita's is really special and there are times when I wish time could slow down so I could sitand soak it all in like a sponge. It was one of those times for the Ephphany Mass. The statues of three kings were moved from across the church to the nativity scene. Our tiniest altar boy gravely lit the candles that he could reach and Fr. Bear did the rest. One of our old A team altar boys was home from college and it was great seeing him.

Two old women who've never spoken to me in four years shocked me by wishing Rocky and me a happy New Year. One of our ushers, whom I've never even seen smile before gave Rocky a cheerful nod. Around me in the pews people were praying or silently reading the bulletin. The organist played with gusto. I really should've gone up to the choir loft to thank him for his work last year. There was a hushed anticipation in the air. The cantor sang sweetly. The lector was.... different but her reading was ineresting. The homily was like a shaft of light in the darkness. Fr. Bear announced that the Thursday Tridentine Mass will be a high solemn one, I can't wait. People stayed after Mass to pray and look at the creche. Rocky and Fr. Eagle sighed over the hapless Redskins.

Help the Christians

The Arabs call the founding of modern Israel the Nakba, "the catastrophe,". I won't get into that but in the last 60 years the Christian presence in Israel has gone from 18% to 2%. That's a catastrophic collaspe of population and Christians are being hard pressed not only in Israel but in the whole Middle East. The Vatican estimates that there may be just 17 million left in the whole Middle East. I expect nothing from the politicians but I find it shocking how so few American Christians seem to care about the fate of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land and the Middle East. It's almost like they're ashamed to mention the Christians. The respones to the recent attack in Egypt has been pitiful. The beleagured Christians there know that they are on their own. What a shame.

Adoration of the Magi

Epiphany

May God bless you all

Poor litte baby

I feel so sorry for Elton John's new possession. That poor kid has nothing to look forward to but ending up like Liza Minelli. Where the heck are the Child Protective Service people?

The Promise of Ages

It's not Santa, it's not some political figure, it's a holy Babe who was born in a manger in Bethlehem. It is Jesus, Mary's Boy Child, God with Us, the Prince of Peace, King of Kings. He is the Lamb of God. Rejoice.

Magnificat

Merry Christmas

Mother of God

Be it done to me according to thy word

Mary around the world

betrayal

• Bishop Chaput came out in favor of the DREAM Act. With a nearly ten percent unemployment rate why do we need to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens? I know a woman who hasn't worked full time in a year. She's terrified that at her age, (over 40) she'll never find full time work again. Volunteers at the Post Office who answer children's letters to Santa are reporting they're seeing letters pleading for mundane things like shoes and coats or jobs for their parents instead of toys. That's a darn shame. Bishop Chaput and his brother bishops who gave public support to the DREAM Act have slapped their parishioners--both the native American and the legally naturalized Americans in the face.
  
  
• Whoever decided to have stripping acrobats at the papal audience on Wednesday did the Holy Father no favors. Acrobats have performed at the Vatican before in John Paul II's day, but this was a bit louche. Why on earth was this allowed? Who thought that hairless men peeling off their tops was a good idea in the presence of the pope?And what was the deal with the strutting dominatrix chick who came with them? Somebody needs to be fired, right now because they're either incompetent or they slyly chose to betray Pope Benedict and make him and the Church look foolish.

Power Plays

I read this post about Sr. Elizabeth Worley which asks if she's the most powerful Catholic woman in America. I found the whole question off putting. It reminded me of when the Holy Father went to England earlier this year and I saw a photograph of a bus that had an ad for women's ordination. It simply said "Give us the power, old man." Why this Satanic obsession with power? What about service, sacrifice, immolation of self? I never hear the feminist Catholics or their gelded male proxies talk about giving all for God, they simply prattle about the ability to force everyone else to go along with whatever it is they want.

For the record, Sr. Elizabeth sounds like a fine person but she's not the most powerful American Catholic woman. That title probably belongs to a cloistered nun, who's name and status are known only to God or a victim soul or maybe even an apparently insignificant lay woman who prays.

Annunciation

Last year I got gifts from various monateries and convents. It was so much fun I'm doing it again this year. Friends are getting items from Holy Orders , Benedictine Monks , Monastery Greetings and beer from the Trappist monks. We gave the beer to our pastor, Fr. Eagle and he was quite pleased.

Random thoughts

• I was at a Christmas party this weekend and boy oh boy do I wish people would shut up about their sex lives. Our Lady of Silence, pray for us.
  
  
• College in America for many kids is four years of sex, booze and casual drug use. At the end the kid is left with a useless degree (If your parents change the subject when people ask what your major is, it's probably a useless program) and a pile of debt. We need to rethink the system.
  
  
• The first slaves arrived in America began in 1619. The civil rights law that made my lifestyle possible didn't' happen until 1964. The fair housing law didn't happen until 1968. When I think of everything my mother's generation has seen it's astonishing.
  


• Pardon my language but I'm pissed off. A number of liberal bloggers are saying that they are angry at Elizabeth Edwards because she stuck with John Edwards instead of dumping him as soon as she found out about his mistress. Their reasoning is that this would've ruined Edwards and he would not have been able to damage Hilary Clinton and a strong Hilary could've fought off Obama. Well, that's just crap and I now see how the Soviets were able manipulate living history so easily.
  
  If you voted for Obama you own that vote. God saw what you did in that voting booth. Don't be like Adam, and whimper that"It's the woman's fault!"
  
  
• Why do we keep allowing immigration from Muslim countries?
  
  

A really fine priest

Rocky and I went over to the Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore of Maryland yesterday. It was very nice. We got as far as Kent Island and went to Mass at St. Christopher's in Chester. The parishioners were a little chilly but no worse than the Mr. and Mrs. Freeze's of Northern Virginia and the pastor there, Fr. Paul Jennings was one of the finest, friendliest and charming priests I've ever had the privilege of meeting. I think the Holy Spirit meant for us to find Chester last night. Father's homily on confession was powerful. It was quite possibly the best one I've heard all year. If you go to the Eastern Shore and have the time, visit St. Christopher's.
'

Our Lady came to Wisconsin

The Marian apparitions at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion, Wisconsin have been deemed worthy of belief. Don't waste your time going to Medjugorje, we have an approved shrine right here in the US.

Sister Adele, you saw the Queen of Heaven and did everything she asked. Pray for us.

I am the Immaculate Conception

Elizabeth Edwards died.

Even if you didn't like Elizabeth Edwards, (I've read some very harsh comments today), pity her three motherlesss children. I know how they feel tonight and I wish I didn't. When I was 13, my father passed away. It was like the earth was ripped from under my feet and a hole was torn in the sky. It's a hideous, terrfying thing to lose a parent and it's worse -- so much worse, than most people can even imagine when you're just a kid.

Oh Sanctissima Maria

The most precious painting of St. Joseph and the Lord I've ever seen

Look at the happiness and affection in this painting. Thre are few good paintings of St. Joseph and even fewer that don't make the Holy Child look like a sickly little girl. This one is just precious.

How to make Christmas better

Drop the martyr routine. Seriously, everybody hates it. I was talking to a man the other day who groused about how nuts his wife gets in December. She's genuinely trying to give her family a perfect Christmas and ends up exhausted and grouchy and they always have a huge fight either on Christmas Eve or a few days before. He really wishes she'd chill out and doesn't appreciate her "show off" efforts because they just make everybody miserable. His wife is not a shrew. She's a nice woman who's trying to to live up the sick crazy train standard that other women create for women.

Ladies stop it. Get off the train. Your husband doesn't give a hoot about whether the tree is a Grandin Road original or came from an award winning tree farm. He doesn't want an exact replica of the White House tree. He really doesn't. You aren't Martha Stewart, heck. Martha isn't even Martha Stewart!She has servants and a magazine staff to make her mansions look beautiful. You aren't Jackie Kennedy, who had maids, and a nanny. You aren't your grandmother. You aren't your sister-in-law or your neighbor. You aren't that woman in the magazine. Stop it. Calm down. Jesus doesn't want you to freak out over the strudel. Remember what He said to St. Martha, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." This year do something different. Be a rebel. Do less. Tell the secular world and it's unrealistic expectations to buzz off.

Holy Mary, Mother of God