Peter in danger?

"Theologians debating sex is a terrible sign:it was while the Byzantines debated that of the angels that the Turks arrived" Indro Montanelli





Until I saw this quote I didn't know who  the late, Italian journalist, Mr. Indro Montanelli was but I can not get his remark out of my mind. The ISIS monsters have said they will attack Rome. Since they've done everything they've said they would do it's reasonable to assume that they mean this threat. My hope is that the many, many wealthy Arabs who shop in Rome and enjoy it very much will be able to speak to whomever it is who funds ISIS these days but these boys seem so far out of control that they might be like Frankenstein's monster once it left the castle laboratory. Islam, as a dangerous force has returned. Perhaps this is allowed as a scourge. Since our bishops are trying to turn the Faith into a Prostestantesque (and not even main line) thing with big sloppy kisses for publicly unrepentant sinners maybe it's time for the "Turks" to arrive again.

A Daughter of Charity

Goodbye childhood friend....

Farewell, Mr. Spock.

After the Wedding

Today it's not uncommon at Catholic weddings for the bride to leave her bouquet at Our Lady's chapel but in 1880s France Breton brides would come to church on the day after with her flowers.

I don't think St. Basil would be pleased

When I think of Father Rosica and Fr. Timothy Scott I have to wonder what the heck is wrong with the Basilian order?

Mother Vogl, pray for us.

St. John Eudes, pray for us.

St. John Vianney, pray for us.

St. Basil, pray for us. 

a beautiful memory

When I was seven or eight I stood in my church, St. Augustine, leaned against a pillar and looked up in awe at the light dancing from the stained glass portraits of Saints Paul and Augustine. They almost seemed to breathe and look down benignly on me. This painting brought that beautiful memory back to me.

An update on my uncle

My uncle has stabilized enough to be moved from the Critical Care unit at the hospital into a rehabilitation hospital. He has a tracheotomy and is lethargic. If you speak or touch him he responds. The staff at the rehab hospital are all very kind and upbeat.  I need to go to the nursing home and secure some of my uncle's things. The last time I was there it was obvious that someone had been watching his TV because the channel had been changed so I should probably get Rocky to take it home.  I really hope I don't see the nurse practitioner or his RN because I am not confident that I'll be civil.

Thank you all for your prayers. 

"Ya Yassou'a" -- Oh Jesus!

While certain Catholics in the West are obsessed with satisfying their sexual urges and then strutting up to Communion with a big used car salesman grin, Christians in the Middle East are being slaughtered. 

Ya Yassou'a is what the 21 Copts cried out as they were being killed. 

In your charity could you say a prayer?

My uncle has had a cold for three weeks. Now he's in the critical care unit. Guess what? The nurse practitioner at the his nursing home was wrong. He doesn't have a bad cold, he has pneumonia. Nursing home acquired pneumonia is common but takes a long time to treat. He's frightened and anxious and has to be sedated in order to let the oxygen antibiotics and bed rest work. When I got the phone call from the nursing home I sat down on the kitchen floor and cried. He's on a ventilator and will not be going back to the nursing home until he's been weaned off it.

In your charity could you say a little prayer for him?

Whatever happens I know, Christus regnat. Christ vincit. Christus imperat.

At prayer

St. Anthony's bread

If you visit a Franciscan monastery or parish on St. Anthony's feast day you will get blessed St. Anthony's bread after Mass.  

Our Lady warned us.....

"Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin.  The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury that would conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent.”

Words from Our Lady of Quito to Mother Mariana

Instead of wasting time and energy raging about the 50 Shades of Gray movie which is number one in both the US and internationally,how about reflecting on what to Our Lady who told us long ago.  And if you were disturbed by the book and movie check your daughter's room to see if she has a copy of the Twilight Trilogy.  It's just as toxic in it's way and 50 Shades was written as sort of a fan fiction tribute that to Edward and Bella's saga.

Religious art at the Walters

Rocky and I went to the Walters Museum in Baltimore to see the Medieval art exhibit. It was incredible.  It was very hard, to see the bishop's croziers, altar chalices and patens, and the reliquaries still holding the bones of saints in a museum instead of a church. I  made the sign of the cross before each relic holder and implored the saints to pray for us. When you first step off the elevator you will be in the main hall which looks like a church. Out of habit I almost genuflected. Rocky said he nearly did as well. We toured the Egyptian and Roman collections and because the museum was about to close we rushed through parts of the Renaissance and 18th century collections.



We saw one very famous painting, "The Christian Martyr's Last Prayer" by Jean-Leon Gerome. When you stand next to it and study the details you will get chills.

We also saw the a painting by an artist I'd never heard of but will be looking into in the future. Ary Scheffer who created this, "Christ Weeping Over Jerusalem"

random thoughts

• Michael Matt has a good question about the big papal extravaganza Masses. I have to say one thing about his experience in 1979. He was a child at the time and he wouldn't have known the difference from a biker gang dude from some guys in leather jackets. That being said, everything else said in the video makes sense. Obviously many, if not, most Catholics-- laity and clergy don't believe in transubstantiation, otherwise they would not act the way they do.

• The people who are outraged over the 50 Shades of Gray movie have their hearts in the right place but the horse has already left the barn. Where were they when the book was becoming a social phenomenon? The time to protest was when their female neighbors, friends and relatives were openly buying and discussing the filthy book and it's equally vile sequels.
  
  
  
• Speaking of vile, isn't it breathtaking when you consider that Cardinals Kaspar and Marx aren't even as honest as Martin Luther? Luther, nasty and nutty as he was, at least openly admitted his hatred of the Church and left.
  
  
  
• Michael Voris did a video on reactionary Catholics. But aren't we all reactionary, Mr. Voris included? Is not his own CMTV a reaction to the horrible and unreported things going on in the Church? Things happen and we respond unless we are oblivious or dead. When one sees rain, a normal person reacts by getting out the umbrella, going back inside or deciding to that getting wet is no big deal. When faced with a weird looking man standing by your car in a dark and empty parking lot most women react by asking someone to walk with them to the car, waiting for the scary guy  to leave or by calling the cops.
  
  
  
  
• Pope Benedict says he has no regrets about resigning. I half way believe him. The poor, dear man is probably so relieved to be out of the limelight and out of the verbal and spiritual cross-hairs of those who hate the Church but if you think about the precedent he set and how bad the whole thing looks, that he probably regrets. 

An ancient crucifix

This was made in 970 AD. 

St. Apollonia

My birthday saint.

At prayer

Random thoughts on a Wenesday

• Has the existence of legal abortion ruined gynecology? A long time ago, I started bleeding heavily and it went on for four weeks. My doctor shrugged and brusquely  told me it was a miscarriage but that my body was handling it.  I was young and meekly accepted that. After six weeks I was exhausted and darn close to full blown shrieking hysteria. He pooh poohed me. I went to a new doctor and got a D&C. Women my age are not surprised by this story but older women in their 60s and 70s are appalled. My doctor at the time did not graduate at the bottom of his class. He was well respected and had a long career. I wonder if the existence of legal abortion helped create the husk over that man's soul.
  
  
• I saw four Dark Eyed Juncos this morning and these plump little snow birds were so cute I forgot the cold for a few minutes.

•  I was reading a lament by the father of several children that went something like this: we never take vacations, or buy new cars or stuff unlike those wicked(?) people over there. The poor man was probably tired and stressed when he wrote his long rant but he's assuming that parents with one or three children are living it up but that's not always the case. A lot of people are just barely hanging on financially and are not doing any better than the couple with ten kids.
  
  
• You've probably seen the photos of that poor, poor Jordanian pilot being burned alive.  May God have mercy on his soul. 

• Mass tonight was wonderful as usual. Fr. Sharp is not a flashy orator but his homilies have much wisdom. 

• “The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should men grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.” – Pope Benedict XI
  
  
• Our Lady of Good Success, pray for us. 

This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

This shameless obscenity  took place at St. Mary's Catholic Church Marysville,(!), Washington, on Superbowl Sunday. Notice that Our Lord is nowhere to be seen.  The pastor, these parishioners are the cool kids. They are in full communion and in good standing. Even if the local bishop does not really approve it's likely that he won't say a blessed thing. 

Now, I like football and I'm always thrilled at the start of the season each year but this is wrong. If I came to the homes of any of these people, removed their photos and put up ones that suit me they'd be outraged at my presumption. How much more  wrong is it to go to God's house and put Him aside to celebrate someone else?

For love of thee and me....

Random thoughts in a a rough week

• Have you ever had someone tell you the famous St. Francis quote, "Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary use words,"? It's pretty suspect.  First off, there is no proof that St. Francis ever actually said this. None of his early biographers including Franciscans who knew him record this statement. It sounds more like a faux folksy Hallmark saying rather than the words of the seraphic holy man. Secondly, it always seems to be an excuse for the person who says it to do absolutely nothing.
• Whenever someone says "Don't judge me," take a deep breath becuase usually means they're about to tell you something that you really would've preferred not to have known. 

St. Stephen's Cathedral

I'm not sure if this shows Adoration or Benediction.

• St. Corbian's Bear has decided to take a break from Pope Francis news for Lent. That's not a bad idea at all. I think a lot of people would  find some relief by doing the same.

• St. Dymphna, pray for me. It's been a heck of a week. 

A word from Pope Pius XI

"With God and Jesus Christ,"...."excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation."



Pope Pius XI

But, but I like rabbits

Seriously, could someone please keep the media away from the Holy Father when he's on the plane? God bless you, parents of big families.

Visit to St. Thomas Moore

I went to my uncle's nursing home on Saturday instead of my usual Sunday this week. It's a good thing to shake up your schedule when you have a loved one at a nursing home. You don't ever want the staff to get casual about your comings and goings. If they think that you only show up on Tuesdays for all you know your loved one is left unclean all week and only cleaned up on Tuesday morning.

At any rate, everything was fine. Rocky picked me up and we went to St. Thomas Moore which is less than a mile from the nursing home for Mass.  If I said St. Thomas was in a rough neighborhood that would be an understatement. Decent people have to be very careful and observant over there. The vigil Mass is held in the rectory chapel and it's very cozy and a sweet, sweet experience. The parishioners are so kind and friendly. An elderly priest, who is fighting a serious illness offered the Mass and his homily was outstanding.  Because the rectory chapel is so small I don't think I'll bring my uncle to Mass there. If he's having a bad day or just wants to fuss he'd disturb everyone so I'll stick to taking him to Annunciation, the other church that's near the nursing home. 

Nope, I'm not Charlie

Notre Dame's bells rang in honor of the dead at the satirical nasty French magazine Charlie Hebdo. This was the surly response from the latest issue.

The Golden Arrow prayer

MAY the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. 
Amen.

random thoughts and nope, I'm not Charlie

A lot of people, impotent in the face of Islam are comforting themselves by  jumping up and down on  Bill Donohoe of the Catholic League but I'm inclined to give the poor old man break. He's not media savvy and never seems to learn a thing from his encounters with the secular press and he probably should've retired years ago.  But never mind Bill, let's be honest about something.  It is a horror that 12 people at the magazine and hostages were murdered by terrorists. May God have mercy on their souls and strengthen their families.  However, don't make saints out of  the staff  at the French satirical magazine--- they  were not nice folks. They regularly blasphemed Our Lord and Our Lady. If you can stomach it, Father Blake in England has posted images of their vile, humor.  Looking at these drawings is an occasion to say the Golden Arrow prayer of reparation for blasphemy because the stuff is satanic. Frankly, upon viewing the magazine's merely offensive drawings on other subjects I was mystified. This is art? This is humor? The subscribers of this crap consider themselves sophisticated? THIS is what they think is worth dying for?  The magazine is not about freedom of speech. It's about license. Those who in their stirred emotions are crying, "I am Charlie," ought to familiarize themselves with what Charlie is.



It was very cold and it snowed for Epiphany. There were the usual car accidents  and  bad judgement on the part of school administrators. Tragically, a number of kids got hurt going to school. The Virginia Department of Transportation blew it and didn't have the roads cleared and the Metro was a nightmare. Rocky and I did not expect to see a lot of people at the Epiphany Mass but the church had a good amount of people, God bless them. We were flirting with the idea of going to Holy Comforter in DC for Mass but the parking situation is hit or miss on Capital Hill and neither one of us was interested in wandering around when we had the chance to go to a beautiful Mass in our own parish. I hoped that someone would take professional photos of the Holy Comforter Mass and a very talented young photographer named Renata Grzan Wiczorak did just that. Feast your eyes on this beauty offered to the Lord. 




There are several things I need to do today but some sort of gastrointestinal plague attacked me around two this morning and has not let up.  I drank a bottle of water, and ate some quiche and went back to bed exhausted.


Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Family or the Baptism of the Lord depending whether you follow the Ordinary form or Extraordinary form calendar.

Baptism of the Lord by Tissot


or 

The Holy Family

Sojourn in Egypt

Riu Riu Chiu from the Monkees

This Spanish carol refers to Our Lady's Immaculate Conception and the nativity of her glorious Son. 

Riu, riu, chiu

The river bank protects it,

As God kept the wolf from our lamb

The rabid wolf tried to bite her

But God Almighty knew how to defend her

He wished to create her impervious to sin

Nor was this maid to embody original sin

Riu, riu, chiu……

He who's now begotten is our mighty Monarch

Christ, our Holy Father, in human flesh embodied

He has brought atonement by being born so humble

Though He is immortal, as mortal was created

Riu, riu, chiu……

Many prophecies told of his coming,

And now in our days have we seen them fulfilled.

God became man, on earth we behold him,

And see man in heaven because he so willed.

Riu, riu, chiu……

A thousand singing angels I saw passing,

Flying overhead, sounding a thousand voices,

Exulting, "Glory be in the heavens,

And peace on Earth, for Jesus has been born."

Riu, riu, chiu……

Happy Epiphany

Your personal taste is not the Faith.

Looking back at 2014, I was struck by how many Catholic writers made the mistake of confusing   tackiness with unrighteousness. Here's a red pill thought for those people: You know that woman who sits in the front pew with her Precious Moments rosary, her grimy Ugg boots and her obviously fake fur coat? She has one of those horrible Jesus playing baseball with little kids figurines at home and a Jesus at the dentist's office painting on her wall. She has bad taste, but that doesn't make her a bad Catholic. In fact, for all you know, her soul is so purified that she's going to be with the good Lord in Heaven 100 years before you even get out of Purgatory.

What if I told you...

The Christ Child

 Melchior Paul von Derschvanden  painted Baby Jesus alone rushing into the arms and hearts of the Faithful. It's interesting how he contrasts the darkness of the landscape and the exquisite brightness of the Holy Child.

Favorites of 2014

My favorite blogs in 2014

Les Femnes 

Fide Cogit Actio 

Restore DC Catholicism

Ann Barnhardt 

(She's as subtle as a punch in the mouth but every time I mutter, "Oh come on now, Ann", six months later she turns out to be absolutely right.)

TLM Maryland 

(My all time favorite and the one site I check everyday)

 Best New Discoveries in 2014

Most people who have a link to the Douay Rheims bible link to the site that promotes the  "Poem of the Man God" by Maria Valtora.  I find this vulgar book to be stomach turning  and I don't want to use any site that supports it in any way so I went looking for an alternative. I found several and didn't really like any of them. Finally I came upon this one. It's clean, has lots of lovely white space and is readable. It has ads but they aren't offensive. 

Joseph Sciambra's blog. This man gets no attention in Catholic media, either printed or online but he's an important voice. He doesn't want to be your mascot, he's not cleverly injecting poison into the minds of Catholic laity and clergy and he calls sin, sin. He's also perfectly frank so if your computer is in the living room and you have children you should read him only when the little ones are not looking over your shoulder. 

David L. Gray He's taken his message to Twitter, on his blog, Facebook and has a phone app. He's not tame, and since he doesn't claim to live an idyllic life on his cozy estate in Catholic dream land, ordinary young Catholics or seekers can relate to him. 

Be Not Afraid: a book of quotes for Catholic men.  It's PDF only and is pretty inspiring for ladies too. 

Well, that was uh, interesting.

Because of Rocky's schedule and traffic we couldn't make it to our own parish for the vigil so we went to another church that we've been to many times before. They had a guest priest and Mass was all over the place. Rocky and I kept looking at each other and the conversation from our pew to the front door went like this:

Dymphna: "Was there a penitential rite?"
Rocky: "No, I'm not sure what that was. I think he combined the opening remarks with the Kyrie."

Dymphna "Oh."

Rocky: "That Gloria went on entirely too long. It was longer than the first and second readings together."
Dymphna "It was call and response style. I don't think the angels sang that long at Bethlehem."

Rocky: "There's no collection? But they're always saying they need money."
Dymphna: "I think it was to save time. Good homily but he raced through it."

Rocky: "Do yo want me to ask about the penitential rite?

Dymphna "No.  I don't want to make him mad."

January 1-- Holy Mother of God or Feast of the Circumcision

Whatever you call it, it's an obligation day so.... get to church. Happy New Year!

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of Grace. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our deaths. Amen.

The Altar Boy

Our altar boys wear black cassocks and linen toppers but the kid who gets to wave the incense always looks just this blissful.

Would someone please tell Vatican staffers to stop trying to be hip?

There is something outputting and weird about this video. The actress seems so blank and artificial. What's pitiful is that someone on the staff of the Pontifical Counsel of Culture thought this was sophisticated.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

 

Guadete!

The Christmas Eve vigil Mass was pretty good this year. The windows were open so we didn't have the heat and funk problem this time. Rocky and the other ushers worked hard but they were happy and every elderly person, or physically impaired person who needed a seat got one.  

Remember Christmastide STARTS on Dec. 25th.

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time."

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1.1

Christ is born in Bethlehem!

Random thoughts before I head to the mall

Every now and then, First Things lets something great slip by the editors. This  essay describes a typical suburban parish. I've been to plenty of St. Dismas's and the religion taught there isn't strong enough to sustain a soul in good times or bad.

One of the biggest blocks to vocations is parents, mother's mainly, throwing a fit when their son (particularly an only son) says he wants to be a priest. This is wrong. You can not sit in the pew and consider yourself good if you deliberately interfere in the will of God. He gave you His only Son. Who are you to deny Him yours?

Fritz von Uhde Heilge was fond of painting scenes from the bible using modern dress. He portrays Joseph and Mary as Dutch peasants walking the road to Bethlehem and several years later shows the Nativity. It looks like St. Joseph is making cocoa or maybe oatmeal.

The Road to Bethlehem (1890)

Holy Night (1911)

____________________________________________________________

Ahem, I guess Dutch kids behaved themselves back in old days. Folk lore said that St. Nicholas would settle all family business for parents before Christmas.  The folks in this lithograph must have had a real little stinker because they both look delighted.  The father is looking like he doesn't even know who this kid is. 

What if we just stopped buying?

I like Tom Ford perfume but I won't ever buy anything with his name on it again because of the blasphemous cross he's pushing. I've never been part of the Apple cult  er, fan base but if I were thinking of buying an iPhone or iPad the company is dead to me now. The CEO gave 8 million to promote homosexual causes in the South. We the consumers gave him that money.
 We can not complain about what companies do unless we stop buying their stuff. You can write letters, you can act a fool in public but if you keep buying their stuff what is the point? You don't need to get on Twitter or Facebook (Remember how useless that Bring Back Our Girls thing was?), just STOP buying.

eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord

Two police officers were murdered in New York yesterday. I'm sad, ashamed and disgusted.

This is beautiful

Five things Catholics should never say and other random thoughts

• My uncle in the nursing home needed a endoscopy and colonoscopy and since the staff at the hospital were completely apprised of his dementia they were ready for him. The procedure went well, and the hardest part was getting the prep formula into him the day before. He has diverticulitis but no polyps. Thank God.
  
  
• Deborah Lipsky used to be a Satanist. You can't get any hard core than that but our merciful God  brought her back from the gates of Hell. She wrote a book about her hideous experiences called, A Message of Hope: Confessions of an Ex-Satanist.: How to Protect Yourself from Evil. It's not St. Augustine's Confessions by any means but it's clear and simple   One thing that has caught the attention of multiple bloggers, an exorcist included is a list of five things you really should not be saying if you want to call yourself Catholic.   

• After reading Miss Lipsky's list I was reminded of something I heard one of the most fearless priests I've ever encountered bluntly stated about Hollywood. Most of what it produces is filthy because a surprising number of the celebrities we idolize have made a deal with the Devil for that fame.

• My firm's Christmas/Hannukah/Winter Fest/Whatever, Free Food and Booze party was last night. It was so bad I left as soon as I ate my pasta. Only a handful of support staff attended, three secretaries, two members of the IT department, one staff attorney and one paralegal and me.  There is a vast unhappiness and uncertainty at the firm right now.  The jollity was no where near what it was like in years gone by. The leadership says everything is fine but it sure doesn't seem like it. At my husband's job they skipped the party altogether and just gave out gift cards. I think I would've preferred that. 

• I think the Holy Father is, like all of us, a product of the times he grew up in. Look at Argentina for the last 50 years and it's not a lovely painting by any means. 

• Rocky is going to be ushering for the Christmas vigil Mass. It was wild last year, due to the large number people who completely forgot their manners to man and their reverence to God. Not all these people were C&E Catholics either.
•  This Video Sancto sermon is so good I stayed up past eleven to listen to it. 

• 
  

Thy almight Word leapt down from heaven....

For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course,  Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction.
The Book of Wisdom, Chapter 18, verse 11

St. Gilbert?

I'm so late on this but last year a priest was assigned to begin investigating if a cause for G.K. Chesterton's canonization should be opened. Some people are overjoyed, others are not. I read one essay by Stephen Drummel a few weeks ago that said Chesterton was too fat (well gee Sherlock, we never noticed), smoked cigars and drank his wine from a tumbler instead of a proper wine glass and that  he got crabby if anyone interfered with him while he was trying to chow down. He also was messy. Mr. Drummel doesn't come out and call Chesterton a drunken slob but he gets darn close to that.  In response to the essay a Dale Ahlquist, the premier US based G.K. Chesterton expert, wrote  that sure Gilbert was a big man but so was St. John XXIII (Pope Pius XI and St. Gertrude the Great were not fly weights either) and for what it's worth,  Pope St. Pius X dipped snuff and  St. Damian smoked and that  passionately liking wine doesn't make one a confirmed drunkard.

Is Drummel rough but absolutely right or is  Ahlquist correct? I don't know but several other sources throughout the decades have pointed out--- and this, I think will be the real deal breaker-- that although Chesterton was a Zionist for a time, it was only because he distrusted Jews and wanted them out of England and Europe. Later in his life he concluded that immigration to Palestine wouldn't work because of the Arabs who were already there and suggested that a carving a country out of territory in Africa might be the answer.  Chesterton's fans are hopeful that one day he'll be canonized but I wouldn't bet any money on it.

Annunciation

A Gorgeous Italian Madonna and Child

God's will is not necessarily fun or what we might want at the time

I was reading Ann Barnhardt's blog last night and the following passage resonated so strongly with me that I printed out the last line and stuck it on my wall at work.

A quick word to the priest readers, if I may. I hear CONSTANTLY as an excuse for “laying low” and “keeping one’s head down”the following:  

“If I rock the boat, I will get exiled and shipped off to Darkest Outer Nowhere.” 

Um, yeah.  Has it ever occurred to you that there are HUMAN SOULS in Darkest Outer Nowhere who

 a.) Our Lord created the universe for so that those human souls, as individuals, might exist, be saved, and be happy with Him forever in heaven, and that He would suffer the entirety of His Passion repeatedly for those people, as individuals, who just happen to live in Darkest Outer Nowhere?  Has it occurred to you that maybe one little old lady in Darkest Outer Nowhere has been begging Our Lord for the last 45 years to send a good and holy priest who will Offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Traditional Rite, and that maybe that priest, chosen to answer those prayers, is YOU? 

And b.) that the efficacy of your offering of the Holy Sacrifice is not tied to the worldly attractiveness of the culture you currently reside in and are so afraid to be exiled from?  Or that the efficacy of the Holy Sacrifice is not a function of how many lay people are in attendance?

Take it from me, just because something feels unpleasant to YOU does not mean that it is, by definition, bad, or not God’s will.  Sometimes it is precisely what feels awful to US that is what is best for EVERYONE ELSE.  Has that ever occurred to you?  Probably not.  Let me say it again:

Sometimes that which feels awful to us as individuals is what is best for EVERYONE ELSE, and is God’s will.

Our Lady of the Cave

Mass was pretty rough on Monday

Rocky and I couldn't make it to our parish so we went to Mass at another local parish. It's a dainty little church, the priest is a nice man, the people are friendly and sincere. I like them so I won't say the name of the place. It was like I fell into a time machine and stepped out in 1976. Afterwards I said to Rocky that  the whole experience, except for Father's excellent and utterly orthodox homily, was like being a little kid again. There was ad-libbing, with the rubrics and a mild lack of cantor control. Rocky was bemused by the loud running commentary by young couple explaining the Mass to their  very cute and talented and not completely potty trained (he announced "I peed! I peed!," sometime around the Our Father), tot. It was sweet but LOUD. Oh well. It was pretty rough but considering our schedule and the horrible evening traffic that night I am thankful we were able to get Mass.

American Hysteria-- It's all just a little bit of history repeated

From the time of the Pilgrims, Americans have been prone to outbreaks of hysteria. You may remember that the Salem Witch trials began with a nine year old girl and her eleven year old cousin who displayed shocking fits that seemed to have no physical cause. As word of the behavior spread other girls in town began doing the same things. And suddenly some simmering neighborhood feuds and family resentments exploded with the girls accusing all kinds of people of witchcraft. By the time cooler heads prevailed twenty people were either executed or died in prison. Some people say that it was the accusation against the governor's wife that finally made most of the colonists realize that this whole thing was a monstrous farce.

We shake our heads at Salem these days but essentially the same thing keeps happening over and over. Do you remember the  day care abuse hysteria wave of the 80s and 90s which destroyed innocent people? At the time if you said, "Wait a minute. How can you take ten or twenty kids out of school in broad day light, abuse them in unspeakable and violent ways without leaving a mark?," people responded by accusing you of not not believing, being evil yourself or being small minded. At first we all believed what was being reported but as the years went by and we read details of the accusations it all fell apart. Obviously, children are abused in school but the ritualized chains of predators (if not outright covens) that suddenly rose up in the 80s and early 90s turned out to be not provable and in many cases obvious hogwash. The accused in the daycare scares are now either dead, elderly, or so severely traumatized that they just want to be left in peace. We don't have their protesting voices to remind us what happened to them and we let the media, the mad and the unscrupulous lead us on into something new to be panicked and outraged about such as the current campus rape frenzy.

 Panics like this are not completely unique to America but we seem to do it more spectacularly than anybody else.  Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

The Immaculate Conception-- Monday is a Holy Day of Obligation

I don't read Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog very much anymore but I checked in yesterday and was a little depressed to see that the comments on the annual question of "Is there any way to get out of going to Mass two days in a row?" aka "How do we handle the Feast of the Immaculate Conception."?  I'll tell you how you handle it. You go to Mass on Sunday and then yeah, you go to Mass on Monday to honor Our Lady. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a holy day of obligation in the US so it's serious business if you miss Mass for a non-serious reason. If you are a parent, and your child has some activity planned on Monday night it's even more vital that you cancel that and go to Mass. If you don't practice the Faith now, while your children are at home don't make a fuss or sulk when they give up it up the minute they leave the house for good. 

The Christ Child

The Infant Jesus by Carlo Dolci

Pray for us, St. Peter Claver

 I have a feeling and can base it on nothing concrete, just my instincts-- that there is a great big fat hustle going on in Ferguson. I think the locals, both the ones who are just enjoying themselves with their stolen loot and the ones who are genuinely outraged,  are getting played but by whom and to what purpose? I haven’t a clue but the Da Tech Guy Blog has a warning for the folks who actually live in Ferguson that makes a lot of sense. 

A particularly vicious demon has been let loose  and when you dance with demons there is no way you can come away from the experience without being burned at the least  or utterly consumed. Speaking of demons, there's a scene in the movie, Evil Dead (don't bother to look it up--it's terrible, bad acting, bad theology, piss poor story telling and unnecessarily graphic and I couldn't stomach it after 20 minutes) where one of the hapless soon-to-be victims says to the hero, " I don't know if you noticed this, but ... Nothing's fine. Everything's been getting worse...every second." That pretty much sums up the political and morally rotten state of this poor country. God have mercy.  We do not deserve it, not one bit but dear God send us priests, send us saints, we need conversion, penance and fervor so very desperately. 

Oh St. Peter Claver, pray for us.  

Magnificat

Annunciation