Man of Sorrows

by Colijin de  Coter

being conformed to the world-- let's have a rebellion

When I was in college I listened to the wrong women, and became conformed to the world.  Thank God I was too shy and had the remnants of too much sense to follow the cool kids as much as I wanted to.  Thank God I started going back to Mass. A lot women can't say that. They got messed up and are still miserable but don't even know why.

A few weeks ago there was a cheerleader/dance team convenetion in DC. Rocky, my mother and I were driving past the convention center on the way back from visiting my uncle in his nursing home. We saw a teenaged girl in a leotard and a jacket walking with her group back to their hotel. All the other girls pouring out of the convention cetner were wearing their team sweats, or their own clothes. This one kid was showing her  thighs and exposed lower portion of her buttocks on the street in 20 degree weather. She had to be cold, her skin was pasty white with blood red blotches. It was more importatnt to this poor kid to show her semi naked self than to the be warm or even comfortable and none of the adults with her seemed to be the least bit perturbed. Later that week we saw a prostitute working near Massachusetts Avenue. The prostitute was more covered than the middle to upper class (cheerleading and dance cost a LOT of money) teen. We live in a culture gone mad.

Another example of this was a young woman we saw in Costco. She was wearing jeans so tight that from a distance it looked like she was naked and painted  blue from the waist down. She immediately reminded me of the display female babboons put on when they are in heat. Women and girls are told by our society that we are supposed to make a crude show of ourselves but be outraged should any man respond to it in kind.  How schizophrenic is that? No, I'm not suggesting that we dress like Saudi women or the sour faced modernist pantsuit nuns but why does a girl have to be nearly naked in public in order to be  hip and "free?"  And why do we listen to the freaks who preach this? Love of public nudity is a sign of insanity, and/or the diabolical. We are in the world but it's dangerous to be of it. I'd rather be called a frump than be a "hot" mess of a spiritually deluded fool.

Angus Dei

Maternity

A prayer

Mater Dolorosa

The Meek Christ

This is one of the most amazing statues of Our Lord, I've ever seen. I don't know who the artist is or when it was done but it's on display during a Spanish Holy Week procession. It shows Him stripped (a humiliation for any normal person but particularly so for such modest people as the ancient Jews), and about to be scourged. He looks calm, resolute. He has set His holy face like flint. He could stop this at any second. One word, one thought would send His persecutors to Hell or even, if you can imagine completely into non existence. He is willingly going submit to one of the most fearsome tortures ever devised by man and He is meeting it head on. He is meek but no sniveling weakling,  He is in control. His power is held in check only because He wishes it so.

This is beautiful

Today's Gospel---caught but bring me to Jesus

One of the best reflections I've ever read on today's Gospel came from a Protestant woman who was giving her testimony about her old life before she found God. She said that although the woman taken in adultery didn't know it at the time being dragged out of her house and exposed to the whole world was the best day of her life. She was caught but the proud Pharisees made a mistake. They took her to Jesus. The Protestant woman said hitting rock bottom...having everyone know about what you've been doing is nothing if it brings you to the Lord. And the woman in the Gospel did not run away or deny everything. She waited, perhaps in a daze or perhaps in calm for Jesus to judge her and when He said "Go and sin no more." She was completely changed.

random thoughts

Look at Christ. Keep looking at Christ.Keep your eyes on Christ and remember, He's already walked a more lonesome valley than we ever could.

 

*A lot of people are pretty heated right now and need to calm the heck down down. Flipping out does not help.




*I just finished reading all five volumes of The Rite of Sodomy by Randy Engel. It's like being plunged in ice water. Although Miss(?) Engel is a very good writer I can't call it an enjoyable read but I'm glad I did.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Hello Pope Francis!

What does it mean for the future? I haven't the foggiest, glimmerings of an idea and neither do any of the "experts". This is the pope that God has given us. Pray for him.

Paging St. Paul.....

And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.

And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient .....Paul to the Romans.

 

 

A priest removed a photo of Pope Benedict the XVI, in order to please his homosexual parishioners. When I first read about this I glanced at a headline on an RSS feed and thought it was a joke and read no further. Later I came across the story again and realized that it's a joke alright but not a funny one. HT, A Shephered's Voice.

Behold the Man

The Crucifixion by Bartłomiej Strobel

Judas has a lot of sons

 

 

Judas has a lot of sons and it's easy for people to get discouraged and cynical but remember, Judas destroyed himself. His evil, his faithlessness, his smiling treahery availed him nothing. 

A Withered Rose by St. Therese

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus, when Thou didst leave Thy Mother’s fond embrace, Let go her hand; And first, on our hard earth, Thy little foot didst place, And trembling stand; Within Thy pathway, then fresh rose-leaves would I spread, — Their Maker’s dower, — That so Thy tiny feet might very softly tread Upon a flower.

These scattered rose-leaves form true image of a soul, O Child most dear! That longs to immolate itself, complete and whole, Each moment here. On Thy blest altars, Lord, fresh roses fain would shine, Radiant, near Thee; They gladly give themselves. Another dream is mine, — To fade for Thee!

How gaily decks Thy feasts, dear Child, a rose new­blown, Fragrant and fair! But withered roses are forgot, — the wild winds’ own, — Cast anywhere. Their scattered leaves seek now no earthly joy or pelf; For self, no gain. Ah, little Jesus! so, I give Thee all! Of self, Let naught remain.

These roses trampled lie beneath the passer’s tread, Unmarked, unknown. I comprehend their lot; — these leaves, though pale and dead, Are still Thine own. For Thee they die; as I my time, my life, my all Have spent for Thee. Men think a fading rose am I, whose leaves must fall At death’s decree.*

For Thee I die, for Thee, Jesus, Thou Fairest Fair! — Joy beyond telling! — Thus, fading, would I prove my love beyond compare, All bliss excelling. Beneath Thy feet, Thy way to smooth, through life’s long night, My heart would lie; And softening Thy hard path up Calvary’s awful height, I thus would die.

May, 1897

(*St. Therese was dying when she wrote this. Her earthly life ended in September 1897)­

Lent competition

Every year someone has to criticize everyone else for not doing enough for Lent. Usually they do it by comparing and contrasting the rest of us with their own righteous selves. I just read a post on another blog in which the author knocked people who enjoy a delicious meatless meal on Fridays and noted that his Friday meals are simple: soup and a  cheese sandwich typically and apparently not all that tasty. I was supposed to be edified but instead I thought, “Well, aren’t you a little snob.”

We don’t eat meat on Fridays throughout the year but I’m not proud of it and I don’t use my penance to put anybody else down. Some Fridays we have pasta, some Fridays it’s a grilled cheese sandwich and some Fridays it’s a big ole shrimp dinner. Rocky works very hard for nine or more hours a day, six days a week. A cold cup of lentils served in a cracked cup isn't enough to keep him fueled for the day.

 

Don’t judge other people because you think their penance isn’t big enough. The woman eating a lobster roll might also be spending her Lent by sleeping on the floor or taking ice cold baths or she might even stay up all night praying for….you. The man eating a flounder with macaroni and cheese, cornbread  and a beer might be a fireman who will be carrying 190 pounds of unconscious person out of a two story building tomorrow. You just don’t know and besides I’m sure that there is someone out there who can look at Mr. Smug blogger and his sandwich and mutter “Humph! I only have water and two saltines on Fridays, you slacker!"

Cardinal O'Brien

There were some very nice people who said that Cardinal O'Brien was innocent and that it was awfully suspicious that accusations against him were just now coming to light. Well, he has admitted the whole thing.  Sometimes when the whispering won't stop it's because the story is true.  Thank God this has come to light. Now may the other Cardinals and Bishops who have done the same thing and continue to do the same be exposed as well.

Thank you, Holy Father

Thank you, Holy Father. The media and the so-called insiders all said you would be a mere place holder pope, and give us a quiet four or five years. They were wrong. You freed the Tridentine form of the Mass and now people can go to a regular parish at normal people hours to attend one. Thanks to you, young priests had the confidence to say the TLM and to insist on dignified, prayerful Novus Ordo Masses. Your reforms have borne fruit and may they continue to bloom.

Stay calm

The idea that the Holy Father is abdicating because he's just now discovered that there is a powerful group of perverts in the Vatican is laughable. People have been saying such a group existed for decades. There were rumors floating around when I was a child. Some of the people who said it out loud weren't the most credible folks but others were. Books have been written on the distressing topic. There really is nothing new here. Think about it. Benedict is a smart man, obviously. He's lived in Vatican City for a long time going back before he was pope. He already knows who the wolves are. It's possible that he was shocked to the core about the size of this group but that's about it. One day we will understand why the pope abdicated. Maybe it was a tactical move against this group.

What is really disturbing to me is the well meaning, very nice people who are saying that we should ignore all the news reports and treat them like calumny and gossip. I'd like to do that but living in Candyland just isn't an option anymore. Silence and looking the other way while hoping for the best is what got us the pedophilia scandals. Stay calm, keep praying and look at everything with a cool, calculating eye. Remember, the gates of Hell will not prevail. Let the truth come out and thank God when it does.


St. Peter Damian, pray for us.
St. Catherine of Sienna, pray for us.

Mother of Sorrows

 

 

Aunt Mavis.

    My Aunt Mavis has left the hospital. She's going be in a rehabilitation center indefinitely but this is progress. She's out of critical care and things are slowly getting better.
Thank you, everyone who prayed for her.

For God so loved the world.........

The Holy Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo  and the efforts of artists to show realistic images of crucifixion all show that Our Lord endured horrible torture for love of us. That's one of the reasons why it is appalling when a priest, one Jesus' own turn the Mass into a something ridiculous.  Vatican II did not say it was okay to turn the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into a nursery school play. Too many Catholics--- laypeople, clergy and religious are acting like kids and a childish adult is not an attractive thing.  Can we grow up, please?  It's time to embrace the mature faith Pope Benedict was talking about.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lady most pitiful Mother most mild

 

 

 

Lady most pitiful, Mother most mild!
Stoop to my frailty; nourish thy child.

Mother most beautiful, Lady most wise!
Solace my heavy heart; comfort mine eyes.

Lady of verity, Mother most kind!
Breathe on my weary soul; brighten my mind.

Mother most merciful, Lady of love!
Bless my desires and draw them above.

Lady of Sorrows and Mother of Men!
Turn thou my weakness. Oh, heal me again.

Elizabeth S. Royce Catholic World - Page 762.
Volume 123. September 1926



a word from St. Bernadette

"I only fear bad Catholics."     St Bernadette Soubirous

One bad Catholic can cause a world of misery. Henry VIII, destroyed himself spiritually and casused the suffering and deaths of  inncoent people. He took a Catholic country and warped into something that would not prick his concience. Bad Catholics give rise to heresy and schism. They do harm in great places and in the lowly. They destroy parishes, make the lives of good priests miserbable, ruin the catechism of both children and converts, and give terrible examples to non Catholic observers.

something to think about

“There will come a great wonder, which will fill the world with astonishment. This wonder will be preceded by the triumph of revolution. The church will suffer exceedingly. Her servants and her chieftain will be mocked, scourged, and martyred.”









Pope Pius IX (1846-78)

road trip

Rocky had a rare Saturday off and decided to take me to Leesburg for a day trip. We went to Banshee Reeks Wildlife area and it's really amazing. Next we visited St. John the Evangelist. If you are in Leesburg you should go. It's the most glorious church in the Arlington diocese. The priest and lay people in charge of decor did a fine job. They went to Newark, New Jersey and rescued statues, stations of the cross and a reredos, altar and tabernacle from Sacred Heart Church which was closed.  We decided to go to Mass at Our Lady of Hope  in Sterling becuase it was closer to where we were headed later in the evening. Mass was okay. They have an excellent priest.

sad, very sad right now

The commentary on numerous professional and private individual blogs about the pope’s abdication is either insipid or it depresses me  because of  the subtle attacks on the sick and the elderly.   Damian Thompson, who strikes me as a squirmy little wormtounge, says that JPII stayed too long and was “mentally enfeebled” and multiple people seem to think it’s good that Benedict will be doing his suffering and dying in private. So the sick and the old should just die already and not offend us by their distressing presence? What the hell?

I’ve read several pieces that indicate that the Church was kept on hold by John Paul II’s dying process from 2001-2005. Really? So nobody went to Mass or got baptized, married, confirmed in those years because we were all waiting impatiently for JPII to die? I don’t recall that.

Aunt Mavis

My Aunt Mavis, one my father's younger sisters went to have a colonoscopy and something went horribly wrong. She's had emergency surgery to repair the damage that happened doing the colonoscopy and now she's on a ventilator.



Update
Aunt Mavis was put into an induced sleep presumably to help her heal. She's still on the ventilator.  The docgtor punctured my aunt when he removed the polyp and didn't notice until too late.  She will have to wear a colostomy bag for a while and she's going to have to go to breathing therapy. My uncle Francis is furious as is all the family.


Further update
My aunt was able to speak to my mother on the phone for a few seconds. Thank you all for your prayers.

The Missal

This painting is called "The Missal." It's beautiful but it also reminds me of a claim made by an "expert" that nobody used missals at all until the 1920s. I knew I was reading tommyrot but others believed him.

Farewell, Holy Father

The Holy Father is stepping down. His reasons will become apparent in time. The professional Vatican watchers are all having their say and I don't trust any of them. So what happens now? We'll be sad for awhile and then we will have a new Holy Father.

 Let's  stay calm brothers and sisters.  Don't let the St. Malachy "prophesies" freak you out. We are not Jehovah's Witnesses and this is not 1975. Nobody knows the day or the hour of when the world ends. 

Pray, pray, pray  for the Holy Father both present and soon to come.

PS
Would someone please burp Rod Dreher and give him some gripe water?

Man of Sorrows

This is beautiful

Poor Clares of the Immaculte praying the Stations of the Cross. The sight of them is so humbling and  inspiring. I will never whimper about sore knees and thighs during Lent on Fridays ever again.

Serenity

A palate cleanser

Lord of Miracles painting in Peru

 

 

Years ago, Rocky and I were visiting the St. Jude shrine in Baltimore and we stopped in the gift shop. They had this small crucifix and I bought it. The Latin American volunteer gave me a quizzical look and asked, "You know about this crucifix?" I said I thought it was a Senor de los Milagros crucifix and the original had been painted by an African slave in Peru. He beamed at me and was happy to sell it to us. This and my San Damiano are the two favorite crucifixes that I own.

 

random thoughts

The existence of the Sandy Hook children's chorus seems perverse to me. The adults involved are sending the kids a false message. When I was in second grade a classmate of mine was murdered along with her entire family because her big brother stole drug money from his boss. Her death did not lead to fun stuff. My class was not treated to trips to the Superbowl or the Grammys. We were told what happened. Some of us read about it in the newspaper. We and Sister prayed for our classmate and then we went on with life.  Nobody was allowed to use that poor girl's death for their own purposes. If any teacher had said, "Hey let's take the second graders to a high profile public event  to remind them and everyone else that their classmate was slaughtered and that drugs are bad," the principal would've fired them and sprinkled holy water and blessed salt after they left the building.


Last week I read this on the Catholic Sista's blog:

Our neighbors think that Christians are out of touch with reality and don’t understand the daily struggles and sorrows that they face. This is where we employ the missionary tool of fashion namely, through dressing with an eye to style and following the latest trends in a reasonable manner, we communicate to those who see us that we speak their language. A prairie dress or long plaid jumper sends the following message, “I reject this culture, and I don’t speak your existential language".

Something in me was disturbed and I'm not sure why exactly. I could not get these words out of my head for days.  Sure I like certain kinds of clothes but the "missionary tool of fashion" is not and never shall be for me.

Don't get too excited

Cardinal Mahony is still a priest in good standing. He can still vote in a papal election and he's not going down without a fight.

Our Lady and one of her knights

This is a statue of Our Lady. Queen of Palestine. Geoffrey Gilbert is a Catholic man and a Knight of the Holy Seplucher and he is going on a Hike for the Holy Land. He's going to do a grueling walk to raise money and awareness for our Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. I think it's shameful how Christians in America have forgotten these people.  Life being caught between the Palestinians and the Israelis is miserable and getting worse. Much of the population has decided to get out.

 If you would like to help Mr. Gilbert, donation information can be found here.  If you can't spare money and a lot of us can't these days he and the largely foresaken people he's trying to help need your prayers and please pass his story on to others.


HT TLM-MD blog

Sr. Louise of Moret

This painting was done in 1680. Sr. Louise was a Benedictine nun living in France. How I wish there was more known about her. All that history really gives us is a legend that she was the illegitimate daughter of Queen Maria Theresa. This of course is ridiculous. It was impossible to carry on an undetected affair in Versaille and the Queen was known to be a deeply pious, no nonsense woman. How Sr. Louise got to France and her life in the convent is just one of those mysteries of history.

Our Lady of Tenderness

TMI or "I don't believe I'd a told that"

Once a woman at a party blurted out something about her relationship with her husband that really should've been kept between them. There was silence and then finally an older gentleman responded by saying, "Ma'am, I don't believe I'da  told that." Reading this story about a Deacon and his wife  who mean well brought the phrase to my mind. What the heck has happened to privacy? Does everybody have to spew out their personal business?  Really, Sir and Madam, God bless your hearts but your conjugal relationship is none of my business and frankly, I don't think anybody really wanted to hear about it.

 

 

 

 

 

Two March for Life moments and one foul man

Yesterday as I was on my way to work, two young women were talking rudely about the March for Life and about babies. No one smiled, no-one made eye contact. The train seemed to be more quiet than usual. I got off before my stop because I just didn't want to be near them anymore.  Later that day I met two beautiful young ladies who asked me which way Madison Street was because they were lost and trying to get to the March. I gave them directions and prayed for them.  It's funny but they were about the same age as the women on the train but they looked so different. Their faces were younger, happier, hopeful. 



At work I read about the comments of "Sir" David Attenborough. He thinks humans are a plague on the earth and that the West should stop helping Ethiopians whenever a drought occurs. Since I live in Northern Virginia and work in DC I meet people from around the world. Most of my neighbors are Ethiopian. I happen to think there is nothing cuter on the planet than a fat, smiling Ethiopian baby and I'd rather hear one Ethiopian baby giggle than a hundred David Attenboroughs saying anything. I'd rather wave goodbye to the last Panda  and Snail Darter than consign one human infant to death. Perhaps his comments would've sounded better in the original German or whatever language the Devil speaks when he's in Hell but the bottom line is that ole Dave doesn't think his precious children are a plague nor is he volunteering himself for suicide. No, he wants the brown and black kids dead. What a foul man. I'll never watch one of his shows again.
 Our Lady of Africa, pray for us.

Our Lady of Africa

An English Pieta

 

 

Michaelangelo's Pieta is the more famous and far more beautiful but this version may be more accurate becuase it shows the rigor mortis that Our Lord's body must have been in by the time He was take down from the cross.

Five minute hates and other random thoughts

* I think that every now and then Americans need a five minute hate to distract us from our own lives. Tiger Woods commited the sin of adultery but the way the media covered it and the way the public ate it up you'd think he was John Wayne Gacy or Timothy McVeigh. Now it's Lance Armstrong's turn. I'm not defending either man but the frenzy surrounding their falls is ridiculous and very telling. While people are frothing at the mouth over Lance, nasty little men in Washington and New York are plotting very bad things for this country.

* Rocky chatted with a nice young lady at church who is considering becoming Catholic. Sadly, until she met him, all the Catholics she knows (including her boyfriend) are  are so lukewarm that they're actually holding her back from converting.  She's been going to an enquierer's class for months and so far they havne't taught any of the basic things Rocky spoke to her about. Good grief.

* Feminsim seems to have produced three kinds of young men. The repulsive man-boys  who only seem to get excited about playing video games for days, woman haters and feral brutes.


*The Nazis lost the battles of WWII but in many ways they won the actual war. They preached that some lives were unworthy of life and today we have legal abortion and euthanasia is becoming more and more acceptable to many people.



*Please pray for our priests. A termite might say to you, "Sure I eat wood but I'm tiny. It's my nature. I can't help it. Besides, what harm do I really do? You're just being a mean old entomophobic." If you listen to the termite and leave it be, you should not be surprised when you discover that  that the termites have multiplied, taken over and your whole house is a brittle shell. When men like this get ordained they cause a lot of misery and destruction in God's house. I bet you that someone discovered what was going on in the rectory and tried to get the Monsignors superiors to correct him. I also would not be surprised if that person--- a layperson or a fellow priest was told to shut up, mind their own business and be kind to poor Monsignor Wallin.


*I got an idea from Old Bob. He commented that he once made Christmas cards showing the Nativity and the Crucifixion and I thought that was wonderful. I searched for cards that would show the beauty of the Nativity and still remind us of what the Babe in the stable was born to do. I found this and bought a box for next year.



*To the people of both sexes who spend time obsessively oggling Archbishop Ganswein.  What you are doing is not cute.  In fact, it's a sin.

*Since God never does anything for no particular reason it should be noted that Christ chose to make His divinity known to ordinary people at a wedding. Notice that the artist shows the Jewish custom of the ladies and men celebrating in separate areas. Our Lady didn't turn to Jesus at the dinner table and casually ask for a miracle. She had to either call Him over to the partition or she must have asked someone to have Him come close enough for to ask. This is profound. A priest, and I can't remember who it was once said that at the Baptism in the Jordan God makes it clear that His Son's holy mission has begun and at the wedding in Cana Mary too, does this. For the sake of the bride and groom she she asks her Son to show His power. She must have known that this would be the end of their quiet life in Nazareth forever but she did it anyway. Somehow she sensed that it was time.

This is beautiful

 Flowers for St. Dorothy's Feast Day (the real St. Dorothy, not the proposed one)

Spanish Pieta

A Russian Madonna

 

 

I've just discovered Mikhail Nesterov. Unknown the West, the Russians produced awesome realistic religious art. We could learn a lot by studying them. 

Daughters of Charity

 

 

 

 

I was taught by Daughters of Charity in high school. I'll always be thankful to the order.

 

Wisdom from Father Lasance..

Out of the Catholic Church none can be saved. This proposition, which highly displeases all ‎sectarians and infidels, is not only clearly established by the authority of Scripture, and by the ‎perpetual and constant belief of the Catholic Church, but it is also evident from reason itself, so ‎that one must needs be blind who does not perceive its truth. This, however, applies only to ‎those persons who culpably and willfully adhere to heresy, or schism, or infidelity, but by no ‎means to those who have been imbued with errors and prejudices from their earliest years, and ‎to whom not even a doubt occurs that they are involved in heresy or schism, or who, if any ‎doubt arises in their minds, earnestly and sincerely seek after the truth; such persons we leave ‎to the judgment of God, to whom it belongs to penetrate and search  the thoughts and ‎dispositions of hearts. For it is incompatible with the divine goodness and clemency that any ‎one should suffer eternal torments who is not guilty of a willful transgression. To assert the ‎contrary would be against the express doctrine of the Church. ‎

‎"Let us hear St. Augustine: We must not, says he, class among heretics those persons who, ‎without willful obstinacy, maintain a false and perverse doctrine, especially if it is not the off-‎spring of their bold presumption, but a legacy from their deceived  and mistaken parents, and ‎who search after the truth with earnest care, being disposed to renounce their error as soon as ‎they are apprised of it. 

Reading this from Father Lasance's famous prayer book is a huge comfort whenever I worry about my Baptist relatives.

I am the Immaculate Conception

Baptism of the Lord

Mary, the Dawn

Mary always goes to her Son

 

 

You can never go wrong when you follow her footsteps.

Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Wise words from Pope Pius

My doctor cheerfully announced that my thyroid is somewhat underactive and I'm too anemic again. I guess that's why I just want to go to bed as soon as I get home from work...oh well, Pope Pius IX knows what to say....

random thoughts for 2013

*Rocky and I went to the Caledon Wildlife Area in King George County and afterwards we drove over to Maryland to go to Mass at St Ignatius Loyola at Chapel Point, Maryland. The parishioners are so friendly. I love colonial era churches and the closed cozy pews. Afterwards we drove down Route 301 and ate dinner at the Wayerfarer restaurant in the Colony South hotel. It was a lovely day.


*I wish the more um...extreme Tolkein fans would take it down a notch and go for a walk in the fresh air.Yes, J.R.R. was a literary giant but he wasn't a doctor of the Church and his work is not holy writ. When you start ranting about how Tom Bombadil and Goldberry were left out of the LOTR movies it makes the rest of us want to run for the door.


*I just ordered the St. Edmund Campion missal from Watershed Press. I'm looking forward to trying it out.


*If I could give one piece of advice to the single folks at my parish it would be for the young ladies to ignore the dried up old harpy feminists and for the young men to stay away from the viciously hateful manosphere blogs. I'm not saying the whole man blog phenomenon is bad but run away from the immoral ones that teach their readers to use women and pay each one back for the one who hurt you back in high school. That's dangerous. Eve was made for Adam and Adam needs Eve. ANY movement that teaches you to despise the opposite sex is twisted and pathetic.

*I saw a mouse in the living room a few days ago and immediately bought a trap and placed it where the mouse had been. While I was cleaning the bathroom I heard a scream. No, not a squeak, a scream. A mouse was on the trap and he wasn't dead. He kept on screaming and it was astonishing how loud that tiny little thing could get.

Mice are disgusting vermin. They urinate constantly, leave piles of droppings, have an unpleasant odor, and carry fleas and disease and yet I felt terrible listening to that creature struggle for its life. I thought about the millions of babies that have been slaughtered in this country. If one of the lowest of the mammalian life forms can suffer and strain for its life how can people believe a human baby---the highest form of life doesn't feel pain or suffer horribly in abortion?


*How do you know you've hit middle age? When you realize that you are two years older than your pastor. Oh gee....

The Trinity by Vasnetsov

Lectors in space

 

Rocky and I went to the Mary, Mother of God vigil Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral.  I have not read all the Vatican II documents but I'm fairly confident that the council fathers and Pope Paul VI did not say that you had to act out the readings during Mass. One of the lectors had a fine barritone voice but as I sat in the pew all I could think of was William Shatner reading the Preamble of the Constitution  and the Dramatic gopher. If anyone at Mass happened to notice me and by chance wondered why I had such a stupid look on my face well, this is why:

The Egypt years by James Tissot

Looking at these paintings I admired the authentic details. Tissot spent many years in Jerusalem and the surrounding Middle East and I wondered what Our Lady and St. Jospeh said to their neighbors about their time in Egypt. The question must have come up.

 

The Flight into Egypt by James Tissot

 

 

The Sojourn in Egypty by James Tissot

 

The Return from Egypt by James Tissot