Presented without comment

random thoughts

*Don’t knock yourself out trying to get your kid into Harvard. It meant something once but really the students are no better than you are. In fact, there’s a lot of filth and corruption hiding in that ivy.

*The Holy Father said something very interesting about Vatican II.


*Well I guess the other shoe dropped.


* If you want to do something about the talking and disrespect for the Blessed Sacrament in your parish try this: Refuse---gently to chat with people in the pews, Genuflect or bow if your knees can't take it anymore, EVERY SINGLE time you pass Jesus. Say a thank you prayer after Mass unless you have small explosive children and if you do try stopping just for a minute and saying bye bye to Our Lord before you go out. Genuflect or bow your head before receiving Communion. You may think this is all pointless because nobody notices. Nonsense. Jesus notices and you'd be surprised but other parishioners do to.


*John Zmirak is an interesting man. I don't know what to make of him.  I read Bad Catholic's Guide and found parts of it distasteful but serious Catholics who I respect, raved about the books.I'm completely unsure of where he's coming from or what team he's really playing on but oh my, can he write.

* To celebrate the Year of Faith the faithful have been granted a plenary indulgence. The Vatican News service has the details.  

 

 

 

I thought this was a joke at first.

 Warning. Do not look at this video if you have high blood pressure, deep melacholia, or are quick to anger. Pray and sacrifice for the Holy Father. Fixing stuff like this spectacle at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil is so hard and huge a job that it can only be done with holy help. I keep hearing that Latin American Catholics will revitalize the Church here in the States because they have a superior grasp of the Faith. Umm. No, bad teaching and tolerance of stupid stuff has had its way there just as it has here. HT Rorate Caeli and WDTPRS.

I look upon Him Whom my sins have pierced...

The San Damiano Crucifix

The Catholic vote

I read Dr. Mirus' comments on why the Catholic vote is apparently in the bag for Obama.  He chalks it up to a failure in teaching. I think it's actually a triumph of the teaching we've been getting for decades. We have been told from the pulpit and in Catholic books, diocesan newspaper editorials, and by the lay leaders of the parish not to be embarassing, parochial, Catholic ghetto unsophisticates and to be cool like everybody else. And so, you have Catholic men and women who, except for the one hour they shuffle into church are exactly like everyone else.

God help us.

St. Faustina

Pray for us, dear saint.

Silence? Nope.

 

 

The real St. Francis is more interesting than the sentimental bird feeder version

St. Francis was not a hippie or a wimp. Father Rutler says it better than I could.

St. Therese, I love you

She's been my loving, protective, and encouraging  friend for a long time now.

random thoughts

From the Passion of the Christ

 

*I just subscribed to Laudamus te, a beautiful devotional missal/magazine. It’s very much like Magnificat but for the Tridentate Mass.


*I visited my uncle on Saturday instead of my usual Sunday and afterwards we went to Assumption church near the nursing home. We've become quite fond of that little parish. The pastor was away and they had a guest priest. He was a gentle confessor and preached his homily with such passion that he looked positively drained afterwards. He mentioned that he's been to many parishes and some have left him simply astonished at the coldness of the people. I had to smile because I've been to a lot of churches like that.


*Is anybody really surprised that the SSPX and the Vatican couldn't reach a deal?


*I was reading New Theological Movement and a commenter said that the Anglicans are more catholic than many of the regular Catholics sitting in the pews. If I see or hear that particular remark one more time I think I'll spit.


*Rocky volunteered to help his brother Knights of Columbus with the parish picnic this year. I'm at home sick and didn't go. This morning he went to pick up the catering order at a local Salvadoran restaurant and later told me that it was like a Western movie. He walked in and it got silent. The customers stopped eating and stared at him. I guess they thought he was a cop or an ICE agent. 


*I just can't read Fisheaters anymore. It's just too sad. It's like walking down the street and finding one of your high school classmates covered in his own muck and bile as he kicks and screams in the gutter. Even if you never really liked the guy it makes your stomach turn to to see it.



*I have fallen in love with the "Overwhelmed by You" song in the Sam Adams beer commercial. I don't care about beer but that song is great.




*Eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord..... Can we please leave Afghanistan? At this point I'm ready to vote for Donald Duck if he assures me that this country will leave that land for good.



*When trying to figure out how to be a good wife and mother don't consult magazines or pop pyschology books . Instead look to Mary. You can not do any better than her.



Of Hobbits, bubbles, and young girls' souls

Father Z has a post on the Hobbit, a book that changed his life. For me, the big book was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sarah Crewe's gallantry, kindness, and patience and her loyalty moved me deeply when I was eight and I never forgot her or the desire to be like her.  I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's books too. Half Pint's resoucefulness and grit impessed me. When parents let their kids read great novels it has an effect. When they let them read trash that has an effect too. I wouldn't be surprised if the foolish women who can't get enough of Fifty Shades of Gray weren't big fans of Flowers in the Attic when they were girls.


Parents have to monitor what goes into their child's brain and not just reading material. You have to constantly preach and more importantly you have to live what you preach. On Ann Barnhardt's page (warning--if you can't take strong language don't go there), she mentions a woman who complained that her daughter wants to be like Kim Kardashian. Miss Barnhardt told her to get rid of her cable TV and the woman replied that she didn't want to live in a little bubble. Actually, in this case, the problem isn't so much the TV as the national culture. You don't have to watch her show to know what the Kardashian woman is doing and this is not the first time a low woman has been idolized by millions.

Kardashian is in fact,  the tip of a spear that goes way, way back. Delilah and Jezebel were dazzling. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a terrible wife and aduteress but she was adored and today remains  a heroine to both feminist and non feminists. Englishwomen may not have loved Anne Boleyn but they were fascinated by her. Her French hoods and extra long sleeves were widely copied. Madam DuBarry set the fashions at Court and was imitated by both good and bad. In Lillie Langtry's day everyone wanted to be like her even though she was an open adulteress. Women rushed to buy anything that Lillie endorsed and people flocked her plays wherever she was in the world. In latter times Elizabeth Taylor and Lana Turner and Angelina Jolie are idolized. If a woman is beautiful and hard enough to dare to do the outrageous she can get away with almost anything. As I said before, it's an old story. Evil has glamour.

But getting back to the woman Miss Barnhart was talking about. She has failed but not necessarily by refusing to get rid of the TV, she's failed because she's obviously not paying enough attention to her kid and she doesn't appear to filling her matriarch role. If your pre-teen daughter's idol is a harlot and she's comfortable telling you that, you messed up somewhere. 

Instead of complaining to people who are too polite to call her out, this woman should be telling her kid that Kardashian is disgusting and that she doesn't want to see or hear anything in her house with that name and that no amount of imitation of that woman's behavior will be tolerated. That means no more shopping at Sears, no purchases of Kardashian perfume  and no more OPI nail polish until they stop selling the  Kardashian brand, and no purchases of any magazine that has her on the cover. Her kid may resent her and be pouty for months but she'll get the message: In mom's house, Kim Kardashian is not a heroine.

Elizabeth Taylor was my father's favorite actress but I knew full well that he did not want me to imitate her personal life. I was my dad's little queen but I knew there were lines, fences of protection that I did not need to cross or there would be consequences. I'm betting that the woman with the Kardashian loving daughter doesn't have any fences. Lacking a fence doesn't mean you don't live in a Christian bubble, it means that predators of all kinds have access to your kid's mind and immortal soul.

Something beautiful

It's been a horrible week so I've prayed more and looked at the calming photos from the breathtakingly beautiful Tumblr blog, Brides of Christ.

A Carmelite novice

When I was little I wanted to be a Carmelite like St. Therese. 

St. Marguerite

While we weren't looking

Delaware just outlawed spanking. Don't say, "Well, I don't do corporal punishment anyway." Tommorow some state could outlaw time outs because they are humiliating or making a kid do chores becuase it's child labor. Bit by bit, the State is taking over private life but most of us are too busy being stupafied by things like Kate Middleton's bosom or what some celebrity is saying.

Sacred Heart Nuns

Agnus Dei!

 

 

 

 

The most beautiful bride I've ever seen

 

Sr. Christiana of the Byzantine Carmelites. 

Vocaton poster fail

Uh Sirs, I'm just a librarian but I'm pretty sure this poster put out by Irish Jesuits won't attract guys to the priesthood.

These might be a little better.

St. Joseph Cupertino

Viva Cristo Rey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Give your priest a break

I saw this prayer on Rorate Caeli and it reminded me of something I've been mulling over for years. I've watched Father Eagle and Father Gandalf and Father Aragon before him be gracious and patient and perfectly attentive to hundreds of people. Years ago a woman wrote on her blog that she was upset because her parish  priest didn't come greet her group. It didn't seem to occur to her that Father might have been doing something else that day like paying the water bill or talking to a bride and groom or spraying sealant on that darn leaky pipe in the kitchen. It also didn't seem to occur to her that lots of groups meet at the parish every week. Surely Father shouldn't be expected to vist every single group  at every meeting? We all have one pastor with one set of quirks to put up with but he has hundreds or thousands of demanding  people to deal with. On a human level it's too much to handle. On the supernatural level it can only be achieved by a total union with the Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ.

random thoughts

*Several years ago I was sitting in a hair salon while one of the stylists told a story about her brother who was talking to his friend, a Rastafarian. The brother implored his friend to see that the Emperor Haile was not the Messiah. The Rasta friend gave the brother an affectionate pat on the back and told him that becuase he was his friend he would let the comment pass. If he were anyone else the Rasta would have to kill him. Some of the ladies in the salon giggled and the stylist shook her head in wonderment and said, "They really do mean what they preach and they'll defend it to the end."
Americans and most Westerners have gotten soft and sloppy about core beliefs. We innocently believe that since we are squishy about religion that everybody else is too.  Nope. I wish more Americans would wake up and realize that we are dealing with people who are not like us.  As Belloc once said:

We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.

 

 

*Fr. Bear helped in the celebration of a beautiful Tridentine wedding in Old St. Mary's in DC. Back in the 90s I would get up take a bus and then a train to Chinatown in DC to go to the TLM at St. Mary's. The neighborhood was rough back in those days and I moved quickly from the train station to the church. Chinatown is fashionable again so things are much better now.


*I've been sick all week and the weekend isn't looking too good either. I'm really looking forward to going to Mass today for the consolation.


*Pray for the Pope. I wish he weren't in Lebanon but he's braver than I am.

*When George Washington was sixteen he wrote out the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavor in one of his notebooks and decided to live by them. Too bad the Duchess of Cambridge never read them. Rule number seven could've saved her and her husband Prince William some embarassment.

*  Have you ever noticed that when there's a conversation about possible societal collaspe that certain guys seem excited by the possibility? My mother is a diabetic and she has no thyroid. I can stockpile food, toilet paper and a little something for personal secuirity. I can raise chickens and grow some vegtables but I can't make insulin or synthetic hormone. My husband takes two medicines everyday and I can't make those either. If access to a pharmacy is cut off for more than an month millions of people are going to die or in my case, be miserable and sickly. Nobody seems to talk about that.


*Katrina Fernandez has decided to stop blogging for awhile. I wish her the best and I hope she comes back as an independent blogger.

God have mercy

Ambassador Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. died horrible deaths. May God have mercy on their souls and may God's wisdom sink into the thick skulls of the people who run our country.  I think of the families of Steven, Smith, Woods and Doherty and I can't imagine how they must feel now. God give them strength and comfort.

This aint glamorous

These two news stories from Hollywood and New York City are an unpleasant reminder that the sophisticated people we're all supposed to look up to really aren't very pretty at all.

While we weren't looking...

I remember flipping channels and for few seconds listening to an Evangelical  (I can't remember his name) on TV years ago, who said that the pedophiles and their psychiatric enablers would use the same tactics as gays to win sympathy and legalization of their activities.  The reaction the next day was pretty fierce. Most commentators scoffed and at least one public homosexual gave the Evangelical a furious rebuttal. Other people just laughed at such a ridiculous notion and used the man's remarks as an example of how dumb the Evangelicals were.

Well, while we weren't looking because we were too busy paying attention to celebrity gossip to deal with hard news or unpleasant facts, the pedophiles were busy working and society is on a conveyor belt being moved further down towards a foul goal. A sympathetic article on child molesters appeared last week in a popular  online publication. It uses the "born this way" argument and claims that putting a child molester in jail doesn't do any good. Of course, incarceration doesn't change pedophiles. They enjoy what they do. Incarceration keeps them safely away from children. Incarceration doesn't cure rapists or con artists either. They enjoy what they do. It punishes and prevents them from harming the innocent for a number of years.

That "silly, hateful, hysterical,"Evangelical with his bad hair cut, cheap suit and poor public speaking voice was right. The age of sexual consent is going to be lowered. Legalized pedophilia will creep up on us. It may take twenty years but unless we have a religious revival or a societal collapse I think it's going to happen and most of us won't even notice until our 15 year old granddaughter's 40 year old "date" shows up and there won't be a single legal thing we  will be able to do to stop her from going out the door with him.

Maria Bambina

Most Maria Bambina statues show Our Lady as a tiny infant that St. Anne has just swaddled. This one shows a chubby cheeked tot.

Sr. Simone have you read Mt 25:1-13?

Sr. Simone says abortion is above her paygrade. What good do the LCWR nuns do? Do they teach like the Nashville Dominicans? Do they serve the poor --- and let's be honest, real poor people don't live in pleasant or safe places--- like the Missionaries of Charity? Do they take care of the aged like the Little Sisters of the Poor? 

Do they dedicate themselves to Marylike behavior and charity like the Sister Servants of the Virgin? Do they take care of cancer patients like the Hawthorne Dominicans? Do they teach and nurse and look after refugees like the wonderful Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus?  Do they take care of the homeless like the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary? Do they dedicate themselves to prayer and reparation like the Handmaids of the Precious Blood?

Do the LCWR nuns do anything beyond riding around in luxury buses making nuisances of themselves?

A Prayer for priests

Lord Jesus, by Thy Precious Blood shed on the way to Calvary, take pity on priests who are victims of injustice, and who, like their adorable Model, receive in return for their devotedness, but crosses, trials and persecutions.


Amen

A prayer for priests from St. Therese

 

What a beautiful vocation we have!

We must keep the salt of the earth!

We offer our prayers and sacrifices

for the apostles of our Lord;

we ourselves must be their apostles,

while they evangelize our brothers

by word and example.

To live for love, O Lord divine,

It's asking Thee to fill with fire

The hearts of all our priests and Thine.

Seraphic purity may they acquire.

Protect Thy Church. I am her child.

My life I offer Thee. Is it enough?

I pray to Thee so kind and mild.

I live for love.

The souls of priests I wish to be

Clear and bright alike a star.

Each one of them, for angels to see,

Before he goes up to the altar.

To grant us such a miracle,

O God, a rosary we say.

We pray before the tabernacle

On our knees, all nigiht and day.

As pure as the white Host may be

Thy priests, these sacred chosen few.

For all the world their lives to see.

Thy friends who teach us in the pew.

May they fulfill their ministry sublime

At Eucharist and frequent preaching.

Accept me in Thy plan divine

As victim for Thy harvesting.

random thoughts

 

• Romanitas Press has a few serious points about processions of the Blessed Sacrament. Pity the poor priest who has to explain to the outraged mamas why their little Honey Pie can't  be a flower girl though.
• I was walking to work and stopped to look at the newspaper boxes for Washington Post, Washington Examiner and the New York Times. All of them  had stories about Hurricaine Isaac on the front covers. If one didn't know better one would think the hurricaine was threatening DC and New York rather than being a fairly frequent weather phenomenon on the Gulf Coast.  I think a lot of news celebrities were privately dissapointed that Isaac wasn't another Katrina.
  
• The truth is the truth even when we don't want to hear it.
  
• Someone at work (hardcore Democrat),was carrying on about the Republican convention. I was polite but I couldn't wait to get away from him.  He's a normaly a nice man but this whole election cycle has brought out a nasty streak that I hadn't realized existed before.
  
  
• I was reading something defending gay priests as long as they are celibate and I sighed. A gay priest who is not sleeping with anyone can still be a problem. If he's noticeably effeminate he's probably repulsing the men and boys in the parish and if the priesthood is percieved to be a soft, warm, wet, sluglike thing then most boys are not going to want to answer the call.
  
  
• I've come across a number of articles written by women sternly telling men to man up. All I can say to that is it's too late. After 40 some odd years of feminism attacking men for being men we can't demand that they suddenly stop behaving like geldings and cads. Having allowed the feminists to make our bed it's too late to whine now. The smart girls are going to find their manly man and marry him. The not so smart girls.... are going to sit around in the club on Saturday night and complain about men.
  
  
• 
  
• Last night I stood and looked up at the blue moon, thought of Neil Armstrong and hummed the song.

Argh!

I won't sugar coat this. When I heard about Archbishop Cordeleone I was exasperated.  Frankly, the first thing that came to my mind was that scene in Godfather where Michael says to his brother, "You broke my heart, Fredo."

Oh well. Genesis says that the serpent was the most subtle of all the creatures and the devil works all the time at undermining the Lord's shepherds. Stupid, disappointing stuff like this is going to happen. So we go on. We pray for our bishops.  

highs and lows

Rocky and I spent a few days in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It's so beautiful and so relaxing just driving along the country roads. We got to visit an Amish farm and I bought crafts from the farmers children. We brought back bags of fruit and corn for my mother. We fed goats, chickens and pettied a few dairy cows and calves. We shopped at Goods general store. We ate bought cheese from September farm, whoopie pies , shoo fly pie and the best chicken pot pie I've ever tasted. The food in Lancaster is so good that when I come back nothing local seems very good for days. The Amish are such industrious, vital people.

We went to the nursing home today and my uncle's mood was not great. His body clock is so off that he stays up all night and doesn't sleep until 4 or 5 in the morning. He was cranky and swore at us. He then went back to sleep and we let him be. This was pretty much of a housekeeping visit. We got his dirty clothes, made an appointment with the nursing home barber and checked his closet and dresser becuase he's been putting dirty clothes back with the clean lately. He'll be his usual sweet as pie next week, I'm sure. These mood fits are just part of this horrible, cruel disease.

Have mercy on the children

Single motherhood by choice is not a good thing. This is one of the unpleasant truths that we know but don't dare say out loud at work or in social situations. Our society lionizes single mothers and heaps sympathy on these "strong" women. Essentially we are celebrating child abuse. Now before anybody goes berserk let me point out that I am the child of a widow. My father died when I was 13. It was not easy for my mother and she had to work two jobs for a period of time before she got a promotion at her main job. As for me, for years I would have debilitating anxiety attacks on the rare occasions when I didn't know exactly where she was. My father's death was unexpected and sudden and I was terrified that something would also happen to her. A woman who was divorced through no fault of her own is very much like a widow and the children of divorcees and widows account for very little violent social pathologies.  I am not talking about widows or divorced women.


I am talking about women who decided that they either didn't need a man or who kept getting involved with men who had no intention of ever being tied down. In 1996, 70% of all prison inmates were the sons of single mothers. Criminologists warned that we would be facing super predators in the next decade.  Do you think the recent flash mobs and home invasions by teenagers is a some kind of accident? Today according to the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, children from single-parent (fatherless) households make up 63% of all youth suicides, and 80% of all prison inmates.  Sixty percent of rapists come from fatherless homes.


Have you ever wondered why so many young white men are misogynistic? I've noticed this when I occasionally read manophere blogs and any time younger guys comment on Internet forums. Have you ever wondered why Hip Hop culture is such  an intensely woman hating one? The generation raised by women doesn't seem to like us very much. Why is that? 


The bible says that a father does not hand his son a snake when the boy asks for fish. A mother shouldn't either. It's already too late for millions of people. We need to stop acting like single motherhood is a great thing. It aint. Marry before having children, and stay married unless your husband is wicked or a domestic brute. If you are pregnant out of wedlock choose a brave, loving, selfless choice: choose adoption.

Art for Tuesday

random thoughts

• I think the Pro-Life folks got sold out. The Al Smith dinner will go as usual. Everyone will have a good time. The Cardinal is far too civilized to pull a St. John the Baptist or a St. John Chystostom. I hope I'm wrong but I expect to see a photo with the Cardinal standing  between Romney and Obama with his head thrown back laughing.
  
• New Yorkers really aren't all that tough. They just ignore stuff and keep moving.
  
  
  
• I didn't notice any mention of Nellie Gray's death in the big time professional Catholic blogs.
  
• I'll be so glad when this election is over. In the last few weeks we haven't been able to go to the grocery store or even the parking lot of our  apartment building without being intercepted by some eager soul trying to get us registered to vote. Last Thursday Rocky  had to shoo away two volunteer women while trying to unload our groceries. He's cute but gee whiz....
  
• Speaking of the registration people... should Cousin Pookie who hasn't been sober or even given a damn about anything since the 80s really be voting?  If you have beg him, force him into a van and up to the voting booth with the promise of a little something later for his trouble should he be voting? Should a kid who doesn't even know who the Vice President is be voting? Maybe we should just leave these people in peace and leave voting to the folks who actually care about what's going on.
  
• Good taste and an English accent do not always go together.
  
• Life in the suburbs is actually more anonymous than life in the city. People moved out here to get away the old neighborhood. Here as long as you keep your grass cut, your condo quiet and your kids out of trouble you can pretty much live as you please without any comments from your neighbors who probably don't even know your name or care to do so.  I used to wonder why parishes in the 'burbs were so cold and unfriendly compared to the parishes I've been to in the city. I think it has to do with the urge to be left alone and in peace that has mutated into a "Get the hell away from me unless you belong to my group or have a child in the parish school," gene.

Rest in peace, Nellie Gray

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Lord of the Rings



Nellie Gray was a truly gallant, noble woman and warrior for Christ and she made the most of the time that was given her. 

        May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.

Amen

Alas for those who met her

Helen Gurley Brown is dead. I don't follow the pagan Greek custom of speaking only good of the deceased so this post may bother some people. Please skip it now if that is the case.

The woman was quite frankly, a procuress. She didn't stalk the school yard luring your girls into her brothel but she cleverly used her writing talent to seduce, to ensnare, to glamour in the orginal 18th century sense of the word.  Her claim to wealth and fame was that she convinced two or three generations of teenagers and young women that adultery was okay, that not only was fornication okay but that you were missing out and were a hopeless loser if you weren't doing it, and that sleeping with your boss was okay if it helped your career.

This foul creature is responsible through her books and magazine for the ruin of many a poor girl. Some of us who read her books in high school got off relatively unscathed. God only knows how many weren't.

The Assumption by Mateo Cerezo

 

Don't forget to go to Mass

St. Ann and the Blessed Virgin

Our Lady of the Passion

This is an Ethiopian version of the Our Lady of the Passion icon. After seeing gold medal winner, Messarat Defar's devotion to Our Lady I went looking for examples of Ethiopian art. We have a huge Ethiopian population in Virginia so I see this icon quite a lot. Here's another version.

Modesty is easy.

Yes, I'll say it. Modesty is not hard at all. You don't have to dress like an Amish woman or a Saudi Arabian. If your neckline is too low put on a camisole or add a strip of stretch lace or get out the safety pins. If your pants are too low make sure you have on a tunic, an undershirt or better yet, just skip lowriders altogether. Pants seem to be a blood-in-the-eye subject for some Catholics which is too bad. Simply remember two things: your age and the situation. I don't care how much you excercise, tight jeans and  jeggings make  women over 30, look like Miss Haversham. Lectors  and ladies bringing up the gifts at Mass need to know that when they bow in pants, nine times out of ten, the view from the pews is not a lovely one.

If you wear a mini skirt --- and come on, you shouldn't, then at least wear dark opaque tights with it. If you have to wear shorts stick to Bermudas and capris. There is no legitimate reason to be seen in public in Daisy Dukes.

If you are have dress that lacks a lining and is in a thin material put on a slip. You may scorn slips as old fashioned but that humble little garment  prevents you from having clinging fabric, see-through incidents, and they save you fom the cringe inducing moment of when you realize that you've been walking around  unaware that  your dress was hiked up in the back and you've been mooning the town.

Your underwear should be unseen. There's nothing more to say about that.  A strapless dress doesn't belong in church, (take note brides) and at best not before 8PM. If you must go strapless then it should be a long, very formal dress. As for swimwear you don't need to wear a bag to the beach or pool but there's no legitimate reason for a bikini and certainly no reason to be seen in a thong. Buy a one piece with brief cut legs or a swimdress and you'll be fine in most circles.  Modesty--- of course you can do this. It's easy.

For God so loved the world

At adoration this week Rocky and I sat near the Infant of Prague statue. I looked and thought of how much God loves us. He gave His only Son up to :

Nails to destroy the use of His hands and feet

A crown made of thorns to pierce His head

Eyes swollen shut, vision bleared by sweat, dirt and blood,‎

The Holy Face so battered and bruised  that He must have been  almost unrecognizable


Dehydration, desperate thirst, cold chills, vomitus,  ribs screaming in pain with every ‎breath
‎
Flesh shredded by the flagrum and a Body awash in a sea of His own blood

All this for love

I can't think of anything more awesome

Girlhood of the Virgin

Random thoughts

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1. I don’t like what’s been done to Batman. I want my Adam West back.



2. In 2008, this photo dismayed me. In 2012, after reading this  I just want to shake my head and sigh.  I just don’t understand Cardinal Dolan.


3. Thank you, Kenyan bishops for speaking up for your people. Melinda Gates needs to mind her own business.

4. Most Catholic books these days are pretty bad. They’re either theologically weak and/or heretical or they are insipid because the author is trying too hard to be hip, but sometimes a seriously worthwhile book gets published. This is one such book.


5. I just noticed a trend in blogging. There seems to be a celebration of weirdness and a denial that there is such a thing as normal. Not true. There is normal. There is decent and there is real. To live outside of the real is to go insane.  Maybe that's what's wrong with our country. Too many people are rejecting reality.

Our Lady of Tenderness

    

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So I bought a new veil

I' ve been looking at this one for a year now but hesitated because it's brown. Once I got it I discovered that the color is beautiful. It's sort of mahogany. The maker was Catholic Traditions. You can find her on my links list or just go directly to Ebay.


Support Catholic business women!

Chick-fil-A

"Activists" (nosey bossy people who spend their lives and make their money trying to force the rest of us  to do what they want) are trying to force Chick-fil-A to give them money and to stop giving money to groups that are pro-normal-man-woman- marriage or be harassed. Well I say "nuts" to that.   I'm having nuggets for lunch and don't touch my waffle fries.

Treasures of the Church

Rocky and I went to the Treasures of the Church exposition at St. John the Beloved on Tuesday night.  The church was packed. There must have been over 400 people there and  and people kept coming in. There was a short talk by a Companions of the Cross priest and  after the talk the crowd walked quietly to the  parish school’s gym and we were able to spend time with over 150 relics. I found relics of my favorite saints and saints I knew nothing about. It was like a family reunion and it was amazing to be so close to the precious relics of God’s champions. I was so happy and felt such tender regard coming from the saints themselves. If you ever have a chance to go to a Treasures of the Church exposition I highly recommend this profoundly blessed experience. 

Saint Michael the Archangel,

defend us in the day of battle.

Be our safeguard against the

wickedness and the snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him we humbly pray

and do thou O Prince of the Heavenly Host,

cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits

who prowl throughout the world

seeking the ruin of souls. 

Amen

None of us knows the day or hour when our earthly life will be interrupted and we will be called before God to give an account for oursleves. Pray, go to regular confession and trust God. 

Assumption Church

Assumption Church, South East DC

We went to visit my uncle on Saturday instead of my usual Sunday and we took him to Mass at Assumption Church again. It is such a precious little church and the parishioners were so kind and friendly. The ushers were particularly perceptive and realized that my uncle is ill and they were so gentle. The new pastor Father Ivany is just a sweetheart. He's young and full of energy and he's a good preacher.  I think he came from youth ministry to his first pastorate at Assumption. Whenever we happen to visit the nursing home on a Saturday we will be sure to go back to Assumption for Mass.

Colorado talkers---have you no sense of decency?

All sorts of miserable wretches are attempting to make hay over the Colorado movie massacre. They are talking when they ought to be silent. People are dead. Mothers, fathers, spouses(?) are grieving and now must plan funerals.  This is not the time to ride a particular hobby horse. One blogger, whom I think is a poor excuse for a man,  blamed the victims for merely being there. Apparently going to anything more than a G rated movie makes you deserve to be gassed and shot down. Another blogger criticized the victims who brought their children.

I agree that Batman isn’t for little kids (and isn’t THAT a shame?) but mocking the dead and injured as they lie gray and cold in the morgue or their hopsital beds is obviously a failure of mercy and decency.

Still another Catholic blogger whom I used to respect and whom I won't be reading anymore, blamed the movie itself and most movies for somehow influencing the 24 year old killer. The political beat news personalities tried to whip the public into hysteria by claiming the killings were due to politics. Brian Ross of ABC implied that  an innocent man was involved and had to apologize.  The innocent man got threats and had to disconnect his phone. Ross sitll has his job. This is all simply obscene.

The Colorado killer is obviously a freak and a monster, a pest of among men but the commentators don't know why he is that way and I don't think they really care. They just want to take the deaths and injuries of people to prove their precious points. There are no pat answers as to what makes mass killer. With that in mind, allow me to introduce someone to you. His name was Jesse Pomeroy at14, he remains the youngest serial killer in American history.  Neither TV, movies nor the Internet had been invented when Jesse started torturing and killing younger children. None of the usual excuses applied to his behavior. Despite being observed for decades no doctor could say if Jesse was simply criminally insane or demonic. You can have a pet theory about the Colorado killings but the glee, the smugness, the unseemly haste of the reporters and commenters is appalling.

Our Lady of Silence, pray for us.

random Friday thoughts

•   Sometimes you need to know when to shut up or at least keep your thoughts to yourself. Here is a nice story about a recent FSSP mission trip to the Dominican Republic and a commenter had to go and ruin it by complaining that the priests were wearing sunglasses and undignified hats.  What this poor man(?) doesn’t get is that life at the Banica mission is rugged. There are spiders, and mosquitos fierce enough to make you run screaming. The roads are dirt, the priest must walk, ride a motorcycle or a mule up and down mountains and hollows to get to the people. The people live in deep poverty and most do not even have their own outhouses. This aint no cushy assignment. If the sight of a priest standing in a tropical climate wearing sun glasses offends you then I just don’t know what to say for you. I really don’t.
  
  

• I don’t read Patheos blogs except for Crescat but I followed a link from another site and it led to this post which really bothered me. Give this poor little girl some privacy. We don’t need to know where she goes to school or have a photo. I know it’s a matter of public record now but seeing it on a Catholic blog written by a member of the clergy just doesn’t seem right. Badly done, Deacon.
  
  
  
• I don’t why Bishop Loverde is doing this but it’s a good thing.. If a CCD teacher objects to promising that she or he won’t teach anything contrary to the Faith then they need to quit.

Hey ladies you don't speak for me

Lucreta Scaraffia has an opinion.  Melinda Gates also has an opinion and her husband's money to back it up. Both these women claim to be speaking for the rest of us. Well I reject them. Ladies you don't speak for me and Melinda, you are particularly foul. You are importing death to women in the Third World with the eugenicist idea that if only those black and brown women has less kids the world would be a nicer place for the fitter white kids in Jackson Hole, Manhattan and Silcon Valley.

Speaking as a formely poor kid I say go home and  ease your boredom by taking  up knitting or gardening  or join the board of a a museum but quit messing with people's lives!




Malficent Gates wishing very bad things on innocent babes

When you take the king's coin....

I read an astute observation on the Restore DC Catholicism blog.

If you take the king’s coin you are his servant. Whether that service is glorious or bitter is a combination of fate, your abilities and the king’s wisdom and whim. Our bishops need to understand that. You might be able to get away with saying “Yeah King, thanks for the money to run my soup kitchen but just give me the money and don’t ask me to do anything that goes against my religion,” with a benign king but what if your king is a malignant sort? Then you're in trouble. So the only thing to do is to stop taking Federal money!

Thomas Cromwell was King Henry's number one ace. It didn't work out too well... 

How to wear a mantilla

When I first started wearing a veil to Mass and Adoration I could never keep it on straight. No matter what I did I always looked a bit crooked or I had the Flying Nun effect. Through trial and error I got it right finally. Some women just toss theirs on and it stays perfectly. Not me. I need bobby pins and a quick mirror check. Rosa Mystica has excellent advice and I found myself wishing that I'd known all this years ago.


I recently found this video tutorial by a just adorable young lady who goes by the handle of She Is Catholic.

The Will You Mantilla With Me blog has some good advice as well.

I don't like this

I don't like this at all. By handing the Gospels to  his wife what is the newly ordained deacon saying? This is not part of the official ordination ceremony. It  took place in LA so I'm not surprised by novelty and I imagine that the liturgy organizers were trying to emphasize that a deacon can't do the job without his wife's support but this looks like the wife is getting an official role as well. It makes me feel uneasy.

4th of July thoughts

• Our power and water have been out since the great storm so we've been staying at my mother's. It's been a lot of fun and I can't complain. Today is the Fourth of July and I don't feel celebratory at all. I'm no Constitutional law scholar but I can't shake the feeling that something life  shaking has happened. It's like coming home with your friends from school and finding your dad drunk and unconscious on the porch. Your friends say nothing and never mention it again and the rest of your family carefully files the incident away in the memory hole but it happened, you all know it and it can't be undone... forever.
  
  I've been mystified by a couple of things: some people at work say that millions of poor people will now have free medical coverage. What poor people? The ones who already get free care? How will Obamacare help me? Since I go to work I take it that I make too much money for "free medical care". It sounds like more money will be going out of my pocket or the IRS police will come get me for something rather vague.  The bishops seem happy about the Supreme Court ruling. So does that mean that they think making me pay for other women's abortions is good? Is the Fortnight for Freedom just a clever dodge ala "I, Bishop X don't want to pay for some woman's sinful behavior but I have no problem with the Baptist/ Christadelphian/AME/whatever layman being forced to?" I don't get it. 
  
  
  
  On the other hand, I'm lying on the floor of my childhood home eating fried chicken and listening to my mother and husband telling jokes. The air is cool, the Washington Nationals baseball team is winning and my parish never lost power. God reigns. Amen.

• Katie Holmes woke up. Great.
  
  
• For the greater glory of God. Thank you Archbishop Sheen.
  
  

Treasures of the Church Exposition

The Companions of the Cross order is coming to Virginia in July with their Treasures of the Church. Pilgrims will have an opportunity to venerate over 150 relics of the saints. HT to Deo Volente at the TLM MD blog and to Gina at Broken Fiat.


 Monday July 23 at 7:00 pm
St. Veronica Church
3460 Centreville Road
Chantilly, Virginia 20151
(703) 773-2000

Tuesday July 24 at 7:00 pm
St. John the Beloved Catholic Church
6420 Linway Terrace
McLean, Virginia 22101
(703) 356-7916

Wednesday July 25 at 7:00 pm
St Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church
6720 Union Mill Road
Clifton, Virginia 20124
(703) 817-1770

Thursday July 26 at 7:00 pm
Our Lady of Peace Church
2 Allendale Rd.
Wheeling, West Virginia 26003
(304) 242 6579

Friday July 27 at 7:00 pm
St. Thomas à Becket Church
1421 Wiehle Avenue
Reston, Virginia 20190
(703) 437-7113

Saturday July 28 at 10:00 am
Our Lady of Angels
13752 Mary's Way
Woodbridge, Virginia 22191
(703) 494-2444
  

This is beautiful

Adoration at a prison in Nairobi, Kenya. HT Crescat blog

My Peace and My Joy by St. Therese

MY PEACE AND MY JOY.

How many souls on earth there are, Who vainly seek for peace and rest! With me, ‘tis otherwise by far; Joy dwells forever in my breast. No fading blossom is this flower, Of its decay no fear have I; Like fragrant rose in springtime’s bower So fair it is, yet shall not die.

Well nigh too great my gladness is, All things I wish are mine to-day. How can I help but show my bliss, Who am so light at heart, so gay? My joy I find in pain and loss, I love the thorns that guard the rose; With joy I kiss each heavy cross, And smile with every tear that flows.

When clouds the sunny skies o’ercast, And weary grows my heart the while, My joy it is that joy is past, And gone my Lord’s consoling smile. My peace is hid in Jesus’ breast, — May His sweet will alone be done! What fear can mar my perfect rest, Who love the shadow as the sun?

My peace,’tis like a child to be, That doth not plan, nor understand; So, when I fall, Christ raiseth me, And leads me gently by the hand. My childish love I manifest, And for His grace alone implore; Then, if He hide, my love to test, I only love Him all the more.

My peace, it is to hide my tears, Nor ever show my bitter pain. What joy to suffer through the years; To veil with flowers each galling chain! To suffer, yet make no complaint, Since this, my Jesus, pleases Thee! Could any trial make me faint? ’Tis Thy sweet cross is laid on me.

My peace,— it is with God to plead, In prayers and tears, by day and night; For many souls to intercede, And say to Him, my heart’s Delight: “O Little Brother, Heavenly King! For Thee the cross I gladly bear. My only joy is suffering, Since thus Thy earthly lot I share.”

I long would live an exile here, If that be Thy dear will for me; Or soon would flee from exile drear, If thou shouldst call me unto Thee. Since Love’s divine, celestial breath Is all I need, my heart to bless, What matters life, what matters death? Love is my peace, my happiness!

January 21, 1897.