On Hearing Mass During Lent by Dom Gueranger

 

Random thoughts on the first Friday of Lent

•  The higher the monkey climbs, the more he exposes himself. A young woman named Sara Stock worked for Elijah Shaeffer, and allegedly had an affair with him right up until she  married a very unfortunate man in January. Shaeffer has a lot of enemies  and his alleged affair with Stock  became public as part of an attack on him. She had also had a lot of ill-wishers who seeing her exposed, exulted in her disgrace and the ruin of her life. In addition to working for Shaeffer, Stock was a Catholic influencer.  Was she ever sincere? God only knows for sure. One thing is clear though.  The whole Catholic e-girl industry is a dangerous thing. All the gullible people, (probably mostly young women), who followed her have got to be pretty disappointed. Hopefully, none of these people hung their faith on her example. 
  
  
  
  

• For the last two or three years Cardinals and now the pope are praising Ramadan.  I shouldn't be surprised but it's so disgusting.

• Never, ever, ever take a job with your diocese.  Joe Enders was a business manager for a parish in Michigan. Now he has no job and no severance. He has a family and a baby due in May. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Rocky and I are really enjoying the Great Fast videos from the Norbertines at St. Michael's Abbey.

Litany of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Litany of Reparation to the Sacred Heart

of Jesus

O Sacred Heart, hear us.

Sacred Heart, graciously hear us.

For the forgetfulness and ingratitude of men,

We will console Thee, O Lord. *

For the way Thou art deserted in Thy Tabernacle, *

For the crimes of sinners, *

For the blasphemies uttered against Thee, *

For the sacrileges which profane Thy Sacrament of Love, *

For the coldness of the greater part of Thy children, *

For the abuse of Thy grace, *

For our own unfaithfulness, *

For the incomprehensible hardness of our hearts, *

For our long delay in loving Thee, *

For Thy bitter sadness at the loss of souls, *

For Thy long waiting at the door of our hearts, *

For Thy loving sighs, *

For Thy loving tears, *

For Thy loving imprisonment, *

For Thy loving death. *

Learn of Me:

Because I am meek and humble of heart.

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow for those who know Thee not,

Have mercy on me as Thou seest best. **

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow for those who do not believe in Thee, **

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow for those who are inconstant and ungrateful, **

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow during the whole course of Thy mortal life, **

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow in Thy agony and in Thy death, **

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow for those who neglect their eternal salvation, **

O Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow for those who offer the most Holy Sacrifice unworthily, **

Heart of Jesus, by Thy sorrow for the scarcity of those who love Thee fervently, **

Sweet Heart of Jesus:

Be not my Judge but my Saviour.

O Jesus, loveliest of all beauty, wash me more and more from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, that, purified by Thee, I may approach to Thee, the pure One, and may be worthy to dwell in "Thy Heart all the days of my life, that I may both see and do Thy will. For this cause was Thy side pierced, that an entrance might be opened for us. Who is there who would not love this wounded Heart? Who would not return love for love to Him that hath loved so well? Amen.

O adorable Heart of Jesus, if men did but know Thee: How they would love Thee!

Random thoughts on an icy afternoon

•  When I was a kid I picked up a book called Nurse and after looking at the blurbs and a few pages I put it right back on the bookstore's shelf. It was feminist and dreary and nothing for a 10 or 11 year old to be reading. The main thing I took from it was that nurses hate doctors and patients. That was in 1979, and I never really thought about that book again until Covid and whenever I read particularly vicious things from nurses on social media. At some point, while the eyes of the great were elsewhere, the nursing and teaching job outlook changed and we got some really scary people in charge of the kids and the sick.  The elders in my family from my early childhood to my college years were always afraid to go to the hospital because they were convinced that  they'd be neglected or given a little push towards the morgue.  I thought that was silly but knew enough to keep my mouth shut. Turns out, Great Auntie may have been on to something.  My apologies...

• As I've said before, a lot of the Catholic e-girls need to get off social media. They're just making young Catholic women look silly, terminally immature and self absorbed. This young lady apparently suffers from anxiety so the backlash to her musings can't be good for her. 

 

• I just learned that a member of a Catholic discussion forum that I used to read has died. She was a devout woman but also, due to the scandals in the Church,  one of the unhappiest and untrusting people I've ever come across. May she rest in peace.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• My sweet darling, mother will be 84 tomorrow and next week I will be 59. I am so blessed. 

Something to think about

 My diocese had its annual MLK Mass. Every year I am disturbed by it. MLK was not Catholic, so he can't be a saint.  A Mass in his honor doesn't make sense. His best friend, Ralph Abernathy and one of his lovers were both pretty frank about his unchaste private life in their memoirs. According to the FBI, He also  witnessed a rape and mocked the victim's suffering.   Dr. King should have defended that woman and the FBI agents who recorded the whole thing should have burst through the door to come to the rescue. Not one man who saw or heard walked away with clean hands.

This happened in January, 1964, in the  Willard Hotel. The Baltimore preacher who was identified as the rapist died in 1991. What happened to that young woman? Was she told to shut up for the sake of the cause? Is she still alive?  May God have mercy on her. 

Wedding notes

 I watched a live streamed wedding Mass a few hours ago. It wasn't bad and the homily was actually good but  I noticed a few things that struck me as lacking.

Ladies, don't wear strapless gowns.  You're not going to a NYC Fashion week ; you're going to the house of God for a sacrament. On a practical level strapless gowns show too much when you bow or genuflect or lean forward to adjust your gown.  Show some respect to the priest and don't make him have to put up with an eyeful of heaving bosom or be photographed with an embarrassingly dressed bride.   

Be kind to your bridesmaids.  Pick a gown that doesn't make any of them look like five pounds of meat in a two pound bag or the chorus line at the Moulin Rouge.  Ease up on the makeup too. I'm not saying go barefaced by any means but resembling the Joker isn't a good look...truly.

If you're going to have family or friends do the readings make sure they can actually speak  using a microphone instead of muttering, giggling or whispering. They don't need to act out the reading either.  When you kiss your groom, please  don't grope each other, or attempt a search mission for his tonsils. Nobody needs to see that in general and certainly not in church.  

Merry Christmas

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.

Random thoughts on a lazy afternoon

 

• The rug cleaner is here and I am so happy. He's moved all my living and dinning area furniture and dirt that laughed at my Little Green Bissel machine is being removed. I'll  have brand new looking rugs for Christmas!
  
  
  
• People get really snobby about this little missal but this is the first one I ever saw and owned, and it's the missal that many people use every Sunday.  It's cheap, fits in a purse and is easy to use. 

• If you want to go further and buy a sturdy daily or Sunday only missal the Latin Mass Helper store is a great resource. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Years ago I realized two things. I needed to veil when appearing before the Blessed Sacrament and I was never going to receive Communion from a Eucharistic minister ever again. I am a very shy person and both decisions scared me because I knew I was going to get blow back. I did in the form of dirty looks but Rocky discouraged people from saying anything to me and I kept going. Today I'm not the only woman who wears a veil in church. Nobody scowls or rolls their eyes. People are used to it.  I'm not the only person who silently, politely avoids the EM line either. If your afraid of what people will say if you veil this little book offers encouragement. 
  
  
  
  
  
• One thing I've learned in my life is that when multiple men look at a priest and either clench their jaws and grunt and refuse to have anything to do with him and parish activities other than Mass or they flat out say that Fr. Skippy is too womanish for them, the best thing to do is to not argue. Wait long enough and observe you'll find yourself going, "Oh, Dad/Uncle/Son/Husband was right."