Holy Face Litany Short Version

I salute Thee, I adore Thee and I love Thee, O adorable Face of Jesus, my Beloved, noble Seal of the Divinity! Outraged anew by blasphemers. I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, most humbly beseeching Thee to repair and renew in me and in all men Thy Image disfigured by sin.

O adorable Face, which was adored with profound respect by Mary and Joseph when they saw Thee for the first time, have mercy on us.

O adorable Face, which in the Stable of Bethlehem didst ravish with joy the angels, the shepherds and the Magi

O adorable Face, which in the Temple didst transpierce with a dart of love the saintly old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna

O adorable Face, which, when Thou didst appear in the Temple at twelve years of age, didst fill with admiration the Doctors of the law

O adorable Face which possesses beauty always ancient and always new, have mercy...

   

 O adorable Face which is the masterpiece of the Holy Ghost, in which the Eternal Father is well pleased, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which is the ineffable mirror of the divine perfection, have mercy on us.

  

   Adorable Face of Jesus which was so mercifully bowed down on the Cross, on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of the world! Once more today in pity bend down towards us poor sinners. Cast upon us a glance of compassion and give us Thy peace.

O adorable Face, troubled and weeping at the tomb of Lazarus,

Adorable Face of Jesus which was so mercifully bowed down on the Cross, on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of the world! Once more today in pity bend down towards us poor sinners. Cast upon us a glance of compassion and give us Thy peace.

O adorable Face, brilliant as the sun, and radiant with glory on the Mountain of Tabor

O adorable Face, sorrowful at the sight of Jerusalem, and shedding tears on that ungrateful city,

O adorable Face, bowed down to the earth, in the Garden of Olives, and covered with confusion for our sins,

O adorable Face, bathed in a bloody sweat,  O adorable Face, kissed by the traitor Judas,

O adorable Face, struck by a vile servant, shamefully blindfolded, and profaned by the sacrilegious hands of Thine enemies, O adorable Face, defiled with spittle, and bruised by innumerable buffets and blows,

O adorable Face, whose Divine look wounded the heart of Peter, with a dart of sorrow and love,

O adorable Face which was washed and anointed by Mary and the holy women and covered with a shroud, have mercy on us.

Be merciful to us, O my God! Do not reject our prayers, when in the midst of our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thy adorable Face.

O adorable Face, all resplendent with glory and beauty on the day of the Resurrection, 

O adorable Face, all dazzling with light at the moment of Thy Ascension,

Be merciful to us, O my God! Do not reject our prayers, when in the midst of our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thy adorable Face.

    

    O adorable Face which is hidden in the Eucharist, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which will appear at the end of time in the clouds with great power and great                 majesty, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which will make sinners tremble, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which will fill the just with joy for all eternity, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which merits all our reverence, our homage and our adoration, have mercy on us.

    O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!

    O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!

    O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!

Weirdness at Adoration

 I saw the weirdest thing last evening. Rocky and I went to Adoration but the holy hour was ruined by one family.  They were sitting in the back but one row ahead of us and I guess they were trying to let each one of the children have a good view of the Blessed Sacrament. Every  ten minutes or so one of them would get up and move to a different pew closer to the altar and another one would return to the rest of the family who  would shuffle then to the right or left and then the next family member would get up and move to another pew. This zig zagging loop went around and around like this for the entire hour. 

Finally a man came in  and knelt down in the sane pew as the family. The teenaged daughter  of the family leaned over to whisper to him. I didn't hear what she said but the man looked surprised and later I saw that he had to keep getting up from kneeling and sit or stand depending on the size of the child each time one  of them would do that bizarre musical chairs shuffle over him. He stayed in that pew though. 

One of the kids who looked about 13 or 14 must have decided that he didn't need to move and the teenaged daughter leaned over to give him a whispered tongue lashing. I saw the boy's cheeks flush beet red and he looked hurt. He got up stiffly and moved to another pew like she wanted. 

Rocky and I left as soon as our hour was over. The musical chairs bit seemed ridiculous, distracting and rude.

The other people in the chapel who were  sitting in  the  up front pews didn't see all this and were spared the distraction. I don't know what the parents were trying to accomplish but I don't see how turning Adoration into a game added to their children's devotion and I certainly didn't see it as charity to the other people in the pews or as reverent to the Lord. 

Random thoughts on a Monday afternoon

•  It hasn't even been a good month yet  and it's  started already.

• Usually at my job when someone reaches the 20 year mark they get a gift. My 20th work anniversary came and went with no comment from HR. I don't know if it's because I gave them resistance on the vax requirement or if they simply have dropped the graceful gesture altogether. 
  
  
  
  
• Pope Francis has not gone crazy. I think he's been like this all along. 
  
  
  
  
• The Fairfield Carmelites are in danger.
    
  
  
  
  
• Pray for us, Father Kaupan.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We had a very odd experience at Mass two weeks ago. It was  Young Adults Sunday and Rocky and I were surprised to see the bishop as the celebrant. There was a full choir, instead of one cantor and we were treated to the long versions of Protestant hymns including one during Communion that sounded like a man talking to a girlfriend. Many people attending the Mass appeared to take some care with their clothes and hair which is definitely not the norm. Both Rocky and I were taken aback because this Mass was celebrated with more seriousness than the Masses for Christmas and Easter. I'm not knocking the Young Adults Mass but it was disconcerting to see that the Mass celebrating them appeared to be more important than any other Mass held in the past year. 

Is Protestant Knowledge of the Bible Really Superior to that of Catholics? I Don't Think So.

I've been doing virtual Bible study at my current parish. On the first day the priest-- who is a fine young man and I like him--- made the same shaming speech that we Catholics always hear. It's the line about how Protestants know their bible so much better than Catholics and how we should imitate them presumably because if you can't quote whole chapters then you don't really love God.  That speech increasing irritates me the older I get. I sat and listened to Father and thought, 'So what!'

Yes---So what! I wonder if the people who make that shaming speech know any Protestants. When Saint Jerome said, "Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ," he was speaking to a world where most people were illiterate. Most people were hearing the Bible at Mass or at Vespers if they went to a monastery in the evening. St. Jerome was not saying pick up a Bible and twist the readings to whatever you want. Interpretation of the Bible without Tradition leads to heresy and disaster.

My  brother-in-law is a Jehovah's Witness. He can spit Bible verses like bullets from a machine gun but you know what? Ninety percent of the time he's wrong. The JWs interpretation of the Bible is flawed with horrifying results.  Think of all the JWs who have died because the JWs believe that blood transfusions are cannibalism and cause the victim who needed the transfusion to be damned. Think of all the JWs who lived and died believing that only exactly 144,000 people are going to Heaven and the rest will either live in Garden of Eden II or experience soul annihilation.  

Mormons are very serious about studying the King James Bible along with their Book of Mormon. A good Mormon can drop some quotes on you and expound on what they "really" mean. Their interpretation says that Our Lord and the Devil were brothers and that if you are a truly saintly Mormon you will be rewarded by God with being a god of your own planet. Their interpretation also forbids tea and coffee.

My mother's family are Baptists. Their interpretation of the Bible says that all you have to do is to accept that Jesus is Lord in your life and then you are saved forever. So you can go drinking and sin sexually on Saturday night but it's all good if you show up sober and embarrassed about the previous night on Sunday morning and pay your tithes. In fact, you don't have to go to church at all or just on holy days such as "Communion" First Sunday or just for Bible study as long as you pay your tithes. Oh, and divorce and remarriage is okay if the first spouse was not a godly person. I think St. Jadwiga, St. Monica, Blessed Elizabeth Leseur and St. Clotilda would laugh at that. My beloved uncle can quote the King James Bible at length. My cousin, his son  is the head deacon at his church and can do the same. 

Have you heard of the Scofield Bible? Millions of Evangelicals who devoutly study Cyrus Scofield's Bible's interpretation believe that the modern, secular state of Israel is holy and must be loved and unquestioningly defended on pain of sin. To put it bluntly, they believe that if you are not a Zionist you either need to get right with God or you are going to Hell.

Think of all the Protestants who believe in the Rapture. Their preacher's interpretation of the Bible tells them that they will be whisked away and avoid all the horrors of the End Times. 

I'm not writing this to mock these people but I think it's important that Catholics stop accepting constant demoralization in regards to formal Bible study.  If you are lucky the leader of your Bible study will keep referring to what St. Jerome and the other early Church Fathers said about the Bible and will point you towards Haydock's Commentary and/or St. Thomas Aquianas's Catena Aurea. If you aren't you'll get to hear about how Jesus choosing His apostles was like a quarterback choosing his team (I sat through that talk once) or how all of Salvation history is just some kind of feminist struggle. Bleech! 

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• Beware the priest who has a female fan club. When you see Father talking about soap operas or romantic comedies with his female buddies and if he allows his gal pals to mock the pious women in the parish don't be surprised when you see the Blessed Sacrament in a separate room and hear questionable things from the ambo. If you notice that the men in the parish don't come anywhere near him and he's never once crossed the threshold of the parish hall room where the men's group meets then you should not be surprised when Father Skippy eventually makes the news in a bad way.
  
  
  
  
• Last week was really hard. I didn't cook and barely cleaned. When I wasn't working I was lying in bed in an eye mask in the dark fighting  headaches. Rocky spent most of the evenings watching over me. Thank God for good husbands.

• This is a really good site for anyone who is new to the traditional Mass. 

• You need to read this.  And then, you  really need to read this.  Study it. I have many Muslim neighbors. Even the strictest of them look at the Afghans and shake their heads. Apparently thousands are already in my state and its just a matter of time before they are released into the general population. After that, some woman, girl or boy will be made to suffer. This group of men is not the same as the few Afghans who immigrated here over the decades and quietly fitted in. When a thousand guys show in your town or state at once it was in saner times seen as an invasion.
  I was in a discussion on a social media site and this subject came up. One person mentioned that Catholic Charities was heavily into resettlement with tax payer money and cursed us Catholics. While I objected to the curse I really couldn't say much of anything because it's true. When you give to Catholic Charities you are working against your own neighbor's interests and helping to stir up hostility. I've said it before and I'll say it again: When somebody's loved ones get hurt they aren't going to say, "Oh well Jewish groups bring immigrants here and so do Lutheran groups." They are going to say, "The Catholics! The Catholics!" That's not good. 

• My HR department sent out an e-mail on Friday announcing that the firm is 99% vaxxed and reminding us that 'Rona boosters will be available soon. I got so angry I deleted it. Damnit, it's not enough to threaten our jobs unless we take the vax but we have to be boosted too? No! 

• A witch has moved into my neighborhood. She has her posters everywhere offering to read the cards for foolish customers. I say the St. Michael prayer whenever I see them. 

• This Reverent Mass locator is very helpful. I was happy to see my old parish and my back up parish included.
  
  
  
  
• Have you ever noticed that the same women who scream the loudest about killing their children have nothing to say about putting the same amount of passion into not getting pregnant in the first place? It's become an open anti-sacrament. 

Random thoughts on a Thursday

• I've just been reading two essays by Iantto Watt, who posts on the William M Briggs site. Both are horrifying, particularly the janissary one because we can see that happening in every public school in America. 
  
  
  
  
• Who are the American civilians still in Afghanistan and why did they stay after May? How many of them are really Americans? I live in Northern Virginia where most middle to upper class people are either connected to the government in some form or fashion or are contractors. I know that contractor money is really sweet. Do a good job for one to five years and your bank account will be nice and plump when you get back home.  I get the financial incentive, but come on! What were these people thinking was going to happen when the American military left? 
  
  
  
  
• Water seeks its own level. Australia started out as a penal colony and despite its jolly image it has returned to it's beginnings.
  
  
  
  
• Although this particular story has a strong whiff of lie, (Remember the Belgian women! Remember the Kuwaiti preemies!) it's pretty obvious that the education money that American tax payers lost to Afghanistan didn't take. In 2021, people there still believe that they could ride on the outside of a plane like an overloaded truck. 
  
  
  
  

• Every moral panic or fad that grips America has its day and burns out. Usually these panics have victims whose lives are ruined or ended and the media runs off like to the next man-made crisis. To those who survive the covid era, please don't forget it. Please remember how your own family members cut ties with you over your vaccination status. Please remember that your neighbors lost their jobs. Please remember the dancing nurses and the doctors who said your unvaccinated uncle deserved to die. Please, years from now when it's all swept under the rug, those who survived  remember those who did not.
  
  
  
  

• May the souls of the Marines killed today in Kabul rest in peace and when Joe Biden goes to Mass this Sunday may the priest mention them in the prayers of the Faithful. 
  
  
  

Pray for Cardinal Burke.

 Cardinal Burke is a fat old man who travels a lot. This is not an insult, just a plain statement of the obvious. Doctors have a joke that pneumonia is the old man's "friend." It means that pneumonia and other respiratory issues tend to follow the elderly. It's not surprise that he is ill but I hope that the reports that he is on a ventilator are not true. I can tell you that if you see a report that he's on the vent and talking then the reporter is either lying or knows nothing about life support. Nobody on a vent is talking. You are heavily sedated. A person on life support is obviously, seriously ill and weak and getting them strong enough to be weaned off the vent is very hard. 

My uncle, Sonny Boy got pneumonia and a collapsed lung and needed the vent. He never was able to fully get off it. 

Now since we are in the age of the great pandemic,  pneumonia and flu seem to have vanished. Possibly untrained medical staff  overdid it with the vents last year and quite likely killed a lot of people. Presumably due to trial and error they have recovered their knowledge of how to use the machine. God willing poor Burke will come out of this alright but IF he has pneumonia and/or Covid and IF he is on life support Cardinal Burke's situation is very poor. I hope that his family or whoever has power of attorney for him is strong and sharp witted.