St. Mary's Maryland.

To celebrate Easter Rocky and I went to several St. Mary's County shrines and churches. We started with the Mother of Light shrine in Clements, and visited the St. Clement's Island museum. Next we went to St. Joseph in Morganza. It's such a beautiful church I was amazed. We saw St. Cecilia's, Holy Angels, St. Mary's and the St. Mary Youth Shrine. Glorious. And at the end of the day we stopped by St. Francis Xavier, the oldest parish in the 13 original colonies. It sits on a spit of land jutting out into the water. An osprey soared low overhead. We saw turkey vultures on the ground and red wing blackbirds, a great egret and some kind of Thrush. If you're ever in Southern Maryland you have to take the Catholic road trip. The history of our faith in America begins right there.

i am astounded

God died for me. Purity came down from heaven. He saw the filth of my soul and wiped me clean with His own blood. In the garden of Gethsemane He suffered hematidrosis, He allowed the temple gaurds and the servants of the high priest to beat Him--- men dedicated to protecting the temple not realizing that the One who was greater than the temple was right there before them. He shed more blood when the Roman soldiers scourged Him. There are over 100 scourge marks shown on the Shroud of Turin. His head was crowned with a cap woven from thorns that led to horrifying neuraglia. His hair and bruised and swollen face must have been covered with blood. He bled in the streets of Jerusalem and finally on the cross. All this to save me.

Think of of it. God came down from heaven to suffer and die. And how do I return this wonderous sacrifice, this tremendous love? With laziness, with cowardice, with indifference. Pardon me Lord.

My Jesus, my Lord, my King. I trust in You this Spy Wenesday night and always.

Oh Mary, my Lady, my queen, let me stay with you at the foot of the cross.

i need a nap.........

The good news is Rocky is doing great. He'll start physical therapy and should be back at work in a week. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him.
I'm tired. Things at work have been miserable. I feel as flat as a badly cooked pancake or like the moon wishing for an eclipse so she can have a break. I really wish I could just stay home with Rocky this week.

Easter's coming. Get your butt to confession

Fr. Vic wants you, especially if you live in Brooklyn, Queens or Long Island.

Queen Athalaiah lives on

Queen Athalaiah was the daughter of Jezebel and like her infamous mother, she worshiped Baal. She is remembered in the bible as the queen who ruled Judea alone and who had her grandsons killed. In the name of power for herself she killed her male infant relatives. Interesting.

Anyone who tells you that the world would be a pink and candy coated place if only women ran things is either mentally dull or a feminist. Actually women are just as vicious, and can be crueler than the average guy could ever dram of being.

Women are capable of violence, and some of us, like Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale are evil bitches who will encourage others to condone or commit murder.

The Sisterhood has it's rules. First, separate the woman from the man. Then get the woman to hate her children. Teach her whine and rail against the day to day grind of taking care of a house and kids. Encourage her to see them and the Man as burdens holding her back. Get her to contracept and even kill.... The spirit of Athalaiah lives on. Instead of a crown her "daughters" wear a nice suit and a pleasant smile. Sometimes they wear judges robes, and in the case of the Rev., sometimes they dress up in vestments.

This is what you voted for.

The President of the United States curtseys/bows before the King of Saudi Arabia. "What is thy bidding, my master?"

Yo Tony Blair! Shut yer trap

and tell your wife to shut up and sit down too.

Rocky and his knee

The surgery went perfectly. Fairfax Hospital's ambulatory surgery department is top notch. Everyone was so lovely to us. Rocky is a very active man and the forced inactivity in making him a little restless. Hopefully the recovery of his poor knee will go smooth and easy as chocolate pie.

Newt!

Newt Gingrinch converted and I've noticed a lot of Catholic bloggers are being very pissy about it, even bratty little Rod Dreher, who loudly left the Church a few years ago and who really ought to mind his own business has commented. I wish I could ask these people who the hell they think they are. Jesus came to call sinners. He did not found a country club for nice people.

Mary of Magdala was once, according to Catholic Traditon the biggest tramp in Palestine. Jesus spoke to her and she became a saint. Saul of Taursus had Christians killed. Pelagia of Antioch was an actress who sold herself to rich men as a concubine and was known for her lewd stage performances. She heard a bishop preach and completely changed her life. The former scarlet woman retired to the desert and became a hermit. Bartolo Longo was a Satanic priest before he was converted. St. Thomas Becket was living a rich young man at Court's life before he became a saint. Matt Talbot was a falling down, nasty drunk, St. Augustine took at mistress at 17(!), Margaret of Cortona lived openly in sin with a man for years.

I don't like Newt, but unless he messes up and starts acting like, oh say the "devout" Kennedys all I have to give him a chance.

jealousy

I think most of what's wrong with America stems from plain old jealousy. We are like the Russian peasant who prayed not that he have a goat of his own but that his neighbor's goat should die. This whole two minute hate on the AIG executives is an example. Instead of worrying about what someone at AIG makes you ought to be upset about the national service bill that passed in the Senate. We're so busy hating on the accomplished, the smart and the people who did what was nessacary to get ahead that we're not even noticing what the hell is happening to our country.

arthritis

Rocky's right knee has hurt on and off for years. He just gutted it out until it felt better and life went on. Well, last Sunday, he could barley stand. I said "we're going to the hospital," and he said, "okay." Since he didn't pooh pooh me or downplay the pain I knew he must've felt terrible. The x-rays say arthritis. On top of that most of the cartilage in his knee is gone. When he stands and walk he has bone on bone contact. Some of the cartilage that is left has calcified and is like rocks wedged into his knee and he has a bone spur. On April 1, he has knee surgery. He'll never have a normal knee but with this surgery he should get years of use out of this knee before having a replacement somewhere down the road.

St. Alphonsus, patron of arthritis, pray for us.

some Christians are so heavenly minded ....

that they are of no earthly use to anybody.


I was reminded of this saying while reading comments on the WDTPRS blog. I suspect that most of Fr. Z's readers have never been poor and don't really know what they're talking about.

condoms, death and the maiden

To all of you Catholics who dared to criticize the pope because of the Church's stance on condoms please picture the following scenario :

Your daughter, your only child announces that she's in white heat lust and is going to have sex with the man she's involved with. He has full blown AIDS and a couple of sores you really don't want to hear about but it's okay because they're going to use protection. The condom, a thin sheath of latex, will protect her, right? Right????

the angel of the Lord declared unto Mary

A palate cleanser

I saw this charming video of a trip to St. Therese's convent on Gloria TV and this wonderful photo on New Liturgical Movement.

Notre Dame---again

I'm not at all upset by the decision to invite Barak Obama to be the graduation speaker at Notre Dame. Before you cast me into the outer darkness, let me explain.

Notre Dame is Catholic in Name Only and has been for a long time. It's like the Episcopalians. It looks good on the surface. You see chapels, and statues and priests and even the occasional habited nun wandering around but the heart is not there at all. All of the big old Catholic schools are like that. If you want your kid to stay Catholic sending him to Notre Dame, Georgetown or Boston College probably won't help. You'd be much better off trying Christendom, Franciscan, Belmont Abbey, Thomas Aquinas or Univ. of Dallas. Heck, the flowering of genuine Catholic faith migt find better ground at Baylor or (ugh!)Bob Jones.

Notre Dame is so far gone that if St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Theresa Benedicta were to suddenly appear and teach a class for a semester both the students and the faculty would complain that they were to "rigid" which we all know means "too Catholic."

What's the answer? Stop sending your kids to Notre Dame. Stop having conferences there. Stop giving speeches there. Stop sending kids there on college field trips. Just stop feeding the monster. We pew potatoes have to take a stand. We dull, dumb, unsexy, unsophisticated folks can change things if we want to. The president of Notre Dame doesn't give a rat's ass about your cards, letters, or op/eds. He will ONLY notice the financial bottom line. So, it's time to go completely Klingon on their asses.

Priests come from families

So let's pray for vocations and remember, there is no secret Vatican nursery. If you want plenty of these:
We need plenty of these:

Pope Benedict in Cameroon

I used to wear my hair like the First Lady of Cameroon back in high school. I miss the 80's, I really do.

The Pope's visit to Africa and the Western media

On the WDTPS blog, Father asks the question as to why the media is ignoring the Pope's trip to Africa. Well, I think I can answer that. One, becuase they hate Benedict. And that's okay. When the main stream media of America, lionizes a churchman, you can be sure that something is wrong. If they hate him, he must be following the road of Christ.

Second, because they don't give a genuine damn about Africans. And that's okay too in a round about way. When the West tries to fix Africa or black people anywhere it usually makes things worse, much worse. I ask for Africans and black Americans the same thing Frederick Douglas asked. Stop treating people of color like victims, children or as if our collective IQs are all somewhere around 64. Frederick says it better than I:


" Everybody has asked the question..., "What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot- box, let him alone, don't disturb him! [Applause.] If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone,--your interference is doing him a positive injury."

Our Ladyof Africa, pray for us.

Beautiful photo of Papa in Africa

I was reading the American Papist blog and found this lovely, lovely shot.