Pray for our priests

Blessed Jerzy

Father Vera

St. Maximilan

St. John Nepomuk

St. John Fisher

Please pray for your brother priests.

Our Lady Consolation of the Afflicted

the fort is betrayed, even by those who should have defended it

In the last few days I've noticed a number of professional blogger writing these farewell to traditional marriage posts. Some, like the Anchoress, whom I just can't bear to read anymore, say give in to the state and push for the Revolutionary French solution*: everyone, gay, straight, whatever goes to the courthouse and get your legal, civilly acknowledged union and let then go to your own church, synagogue, generic faintly Christian worship space, coven circle or fetish hut ...and get married according to your own rite.

As I've said before, that sounds inoffensive, at least on paper and the suggestion that Christians simply ignore the State altogether and only have Church weddings sounds interesting as well. The people who argue for this alternate solution point out that wives and children need not fear for their financial future under this plan because the State says that children born out of legal wedlock get the same as children born in wedlock and that a legal concubine of long standing can end up with just as much money as a married wife. They insist that the only way the State can pick on Christians who refuse a civil union would be if it goes after all the single mothers on welfare and all the people who are living in sin together and that's not going to happen.

These arguments are interesting in a dry, clinical sort of way. It's rather like dissecting a frog in Science class. I suspect that most of these compromisers were never really down for the cause of traditional marriage anyway. Instead of the trenches they were always in sick bay or the canteen  but never mind that for now. What all these people fail to mention is that the reason it seems like the proponents of traditional marriage are losing the fight is that, to paraphrase St. John Fisher, the fort has been betrayed. I've said before, normal people degraded and defiled marriage decades ago. We are like the Romans who woke up and were horrified when the Vandals and Visigoths broke in and started killing, looting and raping. Rome had been in decline for a long time. There were huge cracks in both civil society and in the military defenses. Their own decadence, and stupidity made it easy for the barbarians. And here we are. It's impossible to hold the line when the fort has a huge gaping hole in the wall.


*The French, really? Post Vendee, a thousand cowardly surrender jokes come to mind but you've heard them all.

Confession

I love this painting by Edmund Leighton. Judging by the look on the Domincan priest's face the old gentleman had one humdinger of a burden on his soul.

Madonna of the Arbor

A veil giveaway

The lovely Gina of the My Broken Fiat blog is having a veil giveaway. It's a very pretty item that comes from Liturgical Time. The owner/seamstress does really fine work. I'm going to order one of her triangle mantillas or a princess style one and I am definitely going to get this little treat.

Motherhood is forever

To every mother who ever lost a child.....it's a tough day and some people are so spectacularly dense...may you find comfort and  peace.

Ascension Thursday Mass

St. Rita's is having a high Mass in the Tridentine form on Thursday at 7:30.

Did you know that Time used to be a serious magazine?

My mother once mentioned to me that all of her mother's friends breastfed until their children were about four or five as a birth control method. However, none of those women exposed their naked breasts in public and none of them did it with the intention of being an exhibitionist. My mother says that ladies either left the room if someone other than a family member was present or they covered themselves with a shawl. Discreetly feeding your baby is a long, long way from the freak show on this month's Time Magazine cover.


Someone may be thinking, 'Dymphna, what about all those paintings of Our Lady nursing?' Well, what about 'em? Those paintings show a private moment in Our Lady's life. There is nothing in the Bible or in archaeology that suggests that respectable, married Jewish matrons allowed their bare bosoms to be seen by strangers.

Two cool things and one that is definitely not

• My parish has the Vatican II hymnals by Corpus Christi Watershed press. When I first saw them I was a bit worried. Despite the name, I'm happy to report, the book does not contain any hippy dippy music, no Lord of the Dance, no Eagles Wings. It does contain simple, sober hymns, beautiful artwork, and the readings for every Sunday and Feast so we have been able to get rid of those nasty, flimsy misalettes. It has the order of the Mass in Latin and English for the Novus Ordo and the TLM and all the sung propers. If your church musician uses the hymnal the way it was designed you will hear chant at Mass. Well played, Father Eagle!

• I just downloaded the Laudete Catholic app for my  Droid phone and I love it. It has the rosary, chaplets, daily readings, the liturgy of the hours and hundreds of prayers. It's also free. 

• I was reading Crisis magazine and came across this old chestnut by Steve Skojec. He was going on about how Christians need to be engaged in the culture. Here is a culture story for you: Last week a co-worker went to an after work get together at a local bar. At the party a man told a "hilarious" story about his adventure with a stripper/prostitute at his friend's bachelor party. It was disgusting. To put it delicately, he performed a sex act with the prostitute in public that I can not describe. If anyone at the table found this shocking or even mildly distasteful they did not show it My co-worker said that the women as well as the men laughed and egged the man on to tell more. These people were all middle and upper class. All were college educated. They were to sort of people who are held up as examples by the rest of us when we talk to the underclass kids.The man who told the foul tale is a corporate attorney. My co-worker is Catholic. That's your mainstream, pornified everyday normal culture folks and had I been there I would not have been engaged. I would've walked out. Life in America is a magnificent banquet. There are wonderful things on the table and there's some poison items as well. Refusing to eat everything on the table does not make you a sheltered, delicate, useless, humourless geek.

What a bunch of brats

A group of Georgetown students vandalized the steps of the campus chapel with condoms strewn about. I’ve been to Dahlgren Chapel. It was more like a pagan ceremonial room than a church and I was happy to get out of there  but the Blessed Sacrament was and is there so this ugly act is inexcusable. It costs $40,920.00 to go to Georgetown U. full time. For that kind of money--and lab fees, room and board are not included in that figure, I expect a kid to act like he or she wasn’t raised in a saloon. What a bunch of spoiled brats. Clearly somebody needs to be expelled and have their extended adolescence brought to a sudden but overdue end.

P.S.

Georgetown University has just announced that Kathleen Sibelious, is going to be the 2012, graduation speaker. Oh come Cardianal Wuerl, what will it take to say that this aint a Catholic school anymore?

Presented with a raised eyebrow

After reading this and this  and this I am reminded that lay apologists shoud be looked upon with great care. 

Oh Mary, seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

feverish thoughts

 I came down with an upper respiratory infection and have been sick for days.  I won't be going to the nursing home to visit my uncle this Sunday which worries me but I can't risk bringing my germy self in contact with people who are already fragile.

 I felt like reading a bit today and I saw this on the Anchoress blog. I really would not describe the fuss over the recent correction of the Leadership Conference of Religious Women (LCRW) as operatic. The LCRW has been pretty much a low farce for some time. When I was in high school I walked into a music class one Monday morning and discovered that the middle aged lady at the desk was a nun. She didn't wear a habit and shopped at the same clothing stores as my mother and she wore pearls. She also had the bad perm/man hair cut that has become ubiquitous of the habitless nuns. Sr. J. was wonderfully insane and got some pretty good music out of us but nothing, NOTHING in her made me respect her as a Bride of Christ. She was ill tempered and the best way to describe her is to tell you to read the Harry Potter books that had Dolores Umbridge in them. That was Sr. J. I was still having thoughts about going to the convent one day but I knew I'd never, ever look at Sister J's order.  Interestingly enough, when I graduated the one girl who did try her vocation  didn't bother with her order but went to the fairly conservative Daughters of Charity.

random thoughs

• Peggy Noonan has a new column about American character. Poor woman. She needs to leave Manhattan and go back to New Jersey for a bit.
  
• Larry D. explains his feelings about Patheos  and I agree.

• Father Groeschel is coming to St Anthony of Padua in Falls Church, Virginia to give a talk this Sunday. It is an Institute of Catholic Culture event.
  
  
• I'm not sure how I feel about the new Blogger dashboard.
  
  
• Thank you Pope Benedict. In your old age and sufferings with your health you are stunning your enemies and leaving the rest of us amazed. You've called out those who needed correction (The Neocats and the LCWR) and you boldly opened your arms to the Anglicans and to the SSPX.
  
• Speaking of the SSPX, this post was very interesting.
  
  
• If you had a beautiful Triduum, thank your priest. Father Eagle at my parish is a young, energetic man but even he looked a bit peckish by the time Easter Monday rolled around so imagine what it's like for an older priest. So many Catholics do nothing but bitch and moan. We act as if our priest has nothing to do but make us happy and so, so many of us never think to even  say so much as a "God bless you." on their behalf.
  
  
   
• I don't understand the US Bishops who are throwing a fit over a proposed budget. After decades of cheering as the government takes over more and more of American  private life they were shocked when the government told them that they'd have to pay for birth control and abortions. With all due respect to these men who are far more intellectual than me but sirs, where are your heads?

I'm a middle aged woman and this is what I know

Young ladies if you would be happy

Don't read trashy magazines
Don't imitate celebrities

Don't try to drink like a man

Don't party every weekend

Be sexually chaste

Don't start drama to get attention

If married, don't take your husband for granted

Don't be a shrew- it's not strong womanhood, it's just ugly

If you mess up go to confession

and

 Love God with all your heart

Stand up for your priests

Don't let the media fool you. A kid is at  far greater risk of sexual molestation  from

his public school teacher than he is from a Catholic priest.

If you go to see the Three Stooges movie...

...then you are part of the problem.  No excuses. No "C'mon all my friends have seen it."

 What, are you twelve? Would you follow your friends over a cliff?

No,"It's a joke, don't you have a sense of humour?"

 No, "I'm a devout Catholic and it made me laugh."

None of those crappy excuses will do.  You are part of the problem. That is all.

Christ, Risen

Jesus I trust in You

In your charity

Please pray for my Uncle Bubba. His furnace broke down and so he got out his ancient space heater and you guessed it, the heater shorted out and ignited his bedding. Flames went down the hall and into the attic. Through the grace of God, Bubba was not in the house at the time but was taking his afternoon walk. It's  a total loss. Bubba is 69 years old and has nothing but the clothes on his back.  Red Cross gave him $138, and three nights in a hotel. He's a proud man who has always taken care of others and is not used to be cared for. I'm hoping that my cousins can convince him to stay with them.

a puzzlement

Some of the same people who moaned and groaned about the deaths of bin Laden were pretty nasty, almost gleeful about the death of artist, Thomas Kinkade. I found that puzzling and I think I won't be visiting their sites anymore. 

A few Triduumm thoughts

After the Maundy Thursday Mass we visited seven altars of repose at different parishes around us. Queen of Peace in Arlington was the saddest. There was nobody there but us and a parish staff member. St. Anthony's in Falls Church, Virginia was the most impressive. There must have been 70 people sitting in silence adoring Our Lord. I've never seen that many people at adoration before. St. Mary's in Old Town, Alexandria was the most beautiful. It really looked like we were in a garden. We ended the night at the Cathedral.

On Good Friday night we went to the Burial of Christ ceremony at the Franciscan monastery. A young family sat behind  us and my mother began to cough. The youngest child was chewing gum or candy or had attacked a perfume bottle and the smell kicked Mama's asthma into gear. I asked my husband if we had time to move but every seat was taken by then. Rocky nodded and said, "Look there's Raymond Arroyo." I looked and yep it was him.

"Does he have his family with him?" "I can't tell. It looks like it's just him."
 And then Mr. Arroyo walked to the pew behind us, was greeted with delight by his kids and and led his family away to another part of the church. Rocky and I were amused because once you saw them altogether the kids are the spitting image of their dad and my mother was really thankful because she'd left her inhaler at home.

For the sermon that follows the burial ceremony the priest reminded us all that the Christians in Israel have a very hard row to hoe. They are caught between the Israelis and the Palestinians and that's not a comfortable spot on a good day and these aren't good days. He also spent a good bit of time wishing the Jews a happy Passover which my mother found weird but it made sense actually. The Franciscans are guardians of the Holy Land shrines. They have to be diplomatic.


One thing I want to say to all young parents is this: leave the tots at home when you go to the Vigil Mass or give them and yourself a break. You can't get upset at and threaten to punish a two year old who should've been in bed hours ago if he has a screaming meltdown at 11PM. You should've stayed home and gone to a day Mass. If you have older children (ten and up) who can't behave then you need to discipline them or figure out what mental or emotional issues they have but a two year old is really just a baby and can't be expected to be still for a whole Vigil. Jesus said "Allow the little children to come to Me." Our Lord did not say, "Let the kids throw tantrums in the synagogue aisles or play Angry Birds before the Holy of Holies in the Temple". He really didn't.

Fr. Sticha is right. I hope he hangs tough.

Easter

And He shall reign forever and ever. King of Kings and Lord of Lords..................

For God so loved the world....

Good Friday

Studies of the Shroud show that threre is more dirt on the Holy Face than anywhere else.

The Hours of the Passion

Holy Thursday

Last Supper

Communion of the Apostles

Wenesday of Holy Week

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Matthew 23:37-39

Holy Tuesday

Monday of Holy Week



He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. Mark 11:16





 

Palm Sunday

 

random thoughts while fighting off a sinus attack

• Fr. Chad Ripperger  has given an interesting homily on problems in the Traditionalist movement .  I didn't agree with everything he said and I wish that someone would boost the spirits of traditionally minded people once in while. Even constructive criticism can wear people down if that's all they get.

• For the first time in my life I don't feel good about my country's future.

• Rocky and I went to St. Alphonsus in Baltimore. It's so gorgeous it will make your mouth fall open and is far more impressive than the cathedral. I got to go to confession with Mnsgr. Bastress-- a very kind man-- and Rocky was able to get a blessing for his knee after Mass. If the parish office is open you may also visit the room that St. John Neuman lived in while he was pastor at St. Alphonsus. When I stepped inside I was immediately touched. It's such a tiny room. The church gift shop is one of the best I've ever seen and you can get books I've never come across before as well as veil,s statues (we bought a very cute Infant of Prauge)  and big quart bottles of Lourdes water. And the people are nice.
  
  Later we went to Little Italy for lunch and visited the Inner Harbor and stopped by the Divine Mercy shrine at Holy Rosary Church. The little Polish ladies are absoltute dolls. We just loved them.
  
• Maryland's abortion rate is 50% higher than the national average. The diocese is asking for 100,000 rosaries for the unborn. Please join them. Although I'd never leave Virginia I have soft spot for Maryland becuase of it' s the birthplace of Catholicism in English speaking America and because Rocky and I were married in that state. What happened to Our Lady's land? How did it get so twisted?
  
  
• After Ted Kennedy's funeral a friend of mine sighed and said "Teddy could've driven drunk into a bus load of of nuns and orphans in Boston and he still would've gotten off." All I could say was "you're right." One of these days people are going to get over the Kennedy worship. Until then, thank you Bishop McManus.

•   Watch your daughters. Even if you live a "nice" neighborhood pay attention to whom your daughter is associating with. Even if you don't allow her to date until she's 18 pay attention. The Underground Crips gang was running a huge pimping operation right here in my own town. The range was near my church and included areas where I've shopped and where friends live.

The Annunciation

This lovely painting was done in 2002! Great art that honors the holy is still being made.

The Holy Stairs

Sometime this year I want to go to Pittsburgh and visit the replica of the Holy Stairs.

Somewhere

Somewhere in China a newborn baby’s head is being bashed in by her own mother. You can only have one child in China and this poor little miss is not the one her parents want.

Somewhere in South Dakota a Sioux girl is going to be cold tonight. Her family uses wood to heat the home and her father has sold it all for beer money.

Somewhere in Afghanistan a 12 year old girl has been raped with the full approval of her parents and tribal elders. The rapist is her 50 year old husband and this tragedy was called her wedding night.

Somewhere in West Virginia a little girl is frightened. Her parents are meth heads and she hasn’t seen them in days.

And meanwhile in Georgetown, one of the most expensive schools in America a 30 year old adolescent is demanding that we the people of the United States pay for her birth control. She thinks she and her female classmates are victims. Victims? This poor woman has no idea how lucky she is. 

Ave Maria

Two beautiful things

• Rocky and I look forward to Thursday night every week because that's when St. Rita's has the Tridentine Latin Mass. It's such an uplifting, powerful, beautiful thing. We have young couples, single guys, well behaved children, and worshippers from all over the world. When I hear the words, "I will go to the altar of God..," and the response "to God who gives joy to my youth," I get a thrill every time.
  
  
  
• Every Sunday my mother and I go to the nursing home to visit my uncle. The commute over there isn't fun by any means but when we walk in and he lights up  as soon as he sees us, it's a beautiful thing. If you ever get a chance to visit a nursing home please go.  The residents are so grateful for any little scrap of attention, Reading a book, bringing a magazine or just bringing a pack of cookies brings them so much pleasure. It will fill your heart.
  
  So many residents are just dumped by their relatives and forgotten. Visiting once a month or every couple of weeks doesn't cut it. I don't care how chi chi the home is, residents who don't get visitors don't get anything beyond the barest legal minimum. You need to be your loved one's guard dog. My uncle's nurses know that he has a devoted sister with an eagle eye and a niece who is nuts about him -- or maybe just nuts. Thankfully, he's such a sweetheart and his RNs and LPNs and the CPAs are kind hearted people that they go out of their  way to make him happy. Being my Unkie's (that's what I call him) guardian is not something that I take lightly. It's time consuming but he is my beautiful thing because being in charge of his care is  a kiss from the Cross. 

a visit to St. Michael's

For our anniversary, Rocky and I took an overnight trip to St. Michael's Maryland. We ate crab, and shrimp and looked at bald eagles and wild turkeys. It was a nice little break and one of the nicest moments was visiting the St. Michael Mission Church. It's an adorable little church in the Federalist style and the people are so nice! We prayed the rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet while we were there and we were invited to the St. Patrick's Day luncheon by parishioners. We had to get down the road so we declined but we were quite touched by their genuine friendliness.

Via Dolorosa

Behold, the Man

My King! My King!

Fr. Marcel Guarnizo must be a good priest

Fr. Marcel Guarnizo must be a good priest because the devil doesn't bother with Fr. Skippy or Father Mass-is-about-me-me-me. The devil frets and stews about the good guys. With all the lesbians in the DC area ---and DC has a huge gay population-- why did the Washington Post, a major newspaper with a national and worldwide audience, pay any attention to the complaints of one idividual in particular and why did they put her story on the front page--- THE FRONT PAGE----was there no story in the whole world more important than this one? The whole scene was obviously a set up.

St. John Vianney, you who know so well what attacks a priest is heir to, pray for your brother priest.

Follow Me

This would make a good gift for a seminarian or young priest but it's an excellent reminder for all Christians that following the Lord is not a bed of roses with smiles and candy raining from the sky.

Catholicism is not for sissies.

Today's gospel

Our Lady of Sorrows

Follow Me

If the invisible were visible

HT Phlip Johnson who is going to the doctor. today.

If you could see the invisible at every Mass would you leave the Daisy Duke shorts at home, Missy? Sir, would you dress your 50 year old self like a a grown man and not a teenager? Would you stay for the whole Mass instead of leaving while still chewing on the Bread of Angels? Madam, would you still lean over and tell your freinds --and everyone else in earshot about your grandson's soccer game? Would you rush out so you can get to brunch early? And you, poor little lost girl, would you still strut into God's house and harass His servant and then make a spectacle of yourself when that good servant refuses to play along with your narcicism? Or would we all fall on our faces in awe?

Looks like the Main Stream Media is having a little anti Catholic moment

They hate us. They really, really hate us. And you know what? That’s great. If this statement shocks you please consider this: If you are approved of by the cool kids, then you probably aren’t doing the right thing. No servant is better than the master. The world hated Our Lord and if we are true followers of Him, then the folks at the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, the oh so twee gossip sites, and the New York Times are going to despise us.

Pange Lingua

Our Lady of Sorrows

Today's gospel

You can find more about the artist here.

A commentary on our country from the Divine Office

Today's afternoon reading really got my attention:

What a man sows, he reaps. If he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life.

random Ash Wednesday thoughts

• I went to Mass at St. Matthews Cathedral for Ash Wednesday. It was fine except the cantor sang the Kyrie at the Prayers of the Faithful instead of the "Lord hear our prayer," response. He sang it as long as possible and almost in the melisma style so nobody who wasn't a trained singer could really follow him. It may be permitted but I don't really care for it. 

• What is wrong with Chris Matthews? Did he get kicked in the head as a child or was  he the victim of harsh potty training? If he feels this way about Catholics why did  he go to  the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament Church to sign his new book?

• I was reading a blog where  a commenter mentioned that she had gone to help out at a food bank and was shocked because the people were  uncouth, (I take it nobody used a finger bowl),  badly dressed, and some of the women were fat (I bet this person isn't so pretty herself), and people were actually  watching TV while they ate. The TV thing is something that was beyond the pale in her household, apparently. She also seemed to get the vapors because American Idol was on. Reading this really made me angry. I hope this woman doesn’t go back or if she does, I hope that  the ladies who run the food bank wisely keep her in the back peeling potatoes or washing pans.  If I ever get to the point where I need to go somewhere to get a free meal I’d hate to have this imperious “Christian” looking down her precious nose at me. If you’re going to do something with the hardcore underclass or even the folks who recently slipped into dire financial straits this Lent please don’t be like this person. Nobody who’s hit the skids (and considering what’s happened to this country that could be any of us)  needs someone mincing about going “Ew, yucky!,” at them. Throw a dollar into the collection plate instead.

• Please say a prayer for this good man.

• The more I read about Fr. McRae the more I think that we are no better than the folks in Old Salem. 

Have a beautiful Lent

 May you be closer to God at the end of these 40 days than you ever were before.

The Confiteor

I confess to almighty God

and to you, my brothers and sisters,

that I have greatly sinned,

in my thoughts and in my words,

in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,

through my fault, through my fault,

through my most grievous fault;

therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,

all the Angels and Saints,

and you, my brothers and sisters,

to pray for me to the Lord our God.

 

 

The Confiteor is one of the most amazing prayers in the history of mankind. It's a socially rebellious prayer-- it flies in the face of everything we're constantly told by the world. When we pray it we stand up and admit that we were wrong-- not "It's not my fault, Lord, I was raised badly, " or "Everybody was doing it so I went along." The Confiteor demands that we strip bare all the lies, excuses and avenues of escape admit that we sinned. 

Down goes Maryland

More and more I realize that large number of  Americans really don't want to be free. They want sexual license and don't think beyond that. Like Essau they will gladly toss away everything in order to satisfy an appetite. Pity the poor priest who will be faced with Governor O'Malley and his meddlesome, loud mouthed wife when they present themselves for Communion this Sunday.

random thoughts

• I've said what I think about Theology of the Body before. My feelings haven't changed. Something about it just doesn't feel or smell right to me  especially after reading this .
  
  
  
• Remember when Anne Rice announced that she was Catholic again? People fell over themselves to praise her and her close to, if not totally blasphemous books on Jesus. I remember walking into the Pauline  and the Immaculate Conception Basilica bookstores and seeing  huge displays of her work. Now the poor woman  has left the Church and says she's not sure she even believes in God. Was she ever sincere or was the whole thing just a publicity stunt?
  
  
  
• The US bishops still don't get it.
  
  
  
• Nicki Minaj attempted to be shocking with her lame little Grammy act but we've all seen that garbage before. She may immitate Madonna who got quite rich offending Catholics but she lacks the old woman's rat-like cunning and I see the words "has-been" and "one hit wonder" in her future.
  
  
  
• Speaking of entertainers, I was so sad to hear about Whitney Houston. On her worse day when she couldn't even hit her high notes she had more talent in her little finger than 90% of the pop singers on the world stage today. Her voice was the background music to my 20s. She was my husband's favorite woman singer and we will remember her with affection and sadness. May God have mercy on her soul.
  
  
  
• On March 18th, there will be Laetare Sunday Evensong & Benediction at St. Rita's.
  
  
  
•  I still don't have my plan for Lent ready  yet. 
  

Today's gospel

Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean...

St. Bernadette

Grotto of Lourdes

Fear the baby?

I hesitated to write this because it will probably make people mad. I was reading another blog and was struck by how miserable many of the commenters appeared to be about not being able to cheerfully use contraception.The gist of it was that nobody wanted to risk having another baby but they really didn't like NFP either. Last year I read a truly pitiful comment by a man who said that his wife had simply given up and bolted. She got on the Pill, left him, the Church and found a new man. 

I recall a query on a discussion board from years ago from a newlywed man who had been unhappily celibate since his honeymoon. He said his wife was afraid of getting pregnant. Some people advised him to be patient and try romance. Others suggested that he get a better job and reassure her that she wasn't going to turn into a household drudge. Others suggested marital counseling. One person wrote in and said in essence, "Dude you've been had. Go to your priest and demand an annulment." I occasionally wonder what happened to that young couple. 

Where does this Western world fear of babies come from?

St. Apollonia of Egypt, pray for us

curious moment at St. Thomas

I was sick and so we missed our regular Mass time and had to go to St. Thomas Moore Cathedral in Arlington. It was interesting. I never really like it there and find the music nigh on to unbearable but the priest is a fine man who Rocky respects and he always celebrates a sober, reverent Mass and gives intelligent homilies. At the end of Mass, right before the dismissal, Father read a letter on the HHS mandate from Bishop Loverde and Archbishop DiLorenzo in Richmond. At least a quarter of the people in the pews got up and rather noisily left before the poor priest had finished reading. I found that curious. The lay staff at the cathedral are generally rude but I've never known the parishioners to be. Were they making some kind of statement by the walk out?

Exhausted

My uncle, as is often the case with dementia patients is refusing to eat or drink or take medication. When my mother and I visit, after hours of coaxing he will accept hand feeding or will sip from a straw if I hold it to his lips but thats not enough to keep him going. I can't let him starve so he's getting a feeding tube on Monday. I am so tired. I had hoped he'd be in the nursing home for a year or two before the food refusal stage started.

Oh my Jesus....

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One

have mercy on us and

on the whole world

Random thoughts

•  Anne Barnhardt (yeah, her style is not always to my taste but when she’s right, ole girl is right) has several interesting things to say about this mess and makes a sad prediction that I agree with. She thinks the average Catholic will shrug about the HHS mandate and do nothing while wishing that Father would please stop talking about it and get back to planning the parish festival. 
  
  
  
• Candlemass at St. Rita's tonight was amazing. I think it must be one of the most beautiful Masses I've ever been too. Thank you Fr. Eagle for your enthusiasm and willingness to go the extra mile. The schola sang this antiphon while we all processed through the church with our candles behind the celebrant:
  
  Adorn thy bridal-chamber, O Sion, and welcome Christ the King: with loving embrace greet Mary who is the very gate of heaven; for she bringeth to thee the glorious King of the new light: remaining ever a Virgin yet she bearest in her arms the Son begotten before the day-star: even the Child, whom Simeon taking into his arms, declared to the peoples to be the Lord of life and death, and the Savior of the world.
   Hearing this who wouldn't get excited?