Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• Whenever a a Catholic leader tells me that massive illegal immigration from Latin America is actually a good thing because these folks are natural family and tradition loving conservatives I assume that I listening to a liar or a fool. Neither one is a good thing. This Sprite commercial comes from Argentina,. 

• We are long past the point of arguing whether Francis is a true pope or not. He has the ring. He is in the Vatican and wields his power like a mace to the head of a bound victim. Benedict sits mute and hidden except for when he's trotted out by his minder, Archbishop Ganswein, and no active cardinal in good standing has the guts to say to Francis on camera, in public at a Vatican event that he's spouting heretical, idolatrous, globalist crap and is an unworthy hireling. There are those who are timidly waiting for Francis to die so that this dark night in the Church can finally end. Well if you are thinking that, stop it. Francis is probably going to live into his 90s and even if he died today his policies will live on many decades after him.
  
  
  
• Sr. Sasagawa of Akita says she's had another visitation after 46 years. I've noticed that this has been ignored by most of Catholic media. Another thing I noticed is that Sister said Our Lady spoke of penance and asked that we pray the rosary. She said nothing about Divine Mercy or loving icebergs.
  
  
• My cousin Lou Lou is in hospice. When she was 19 she had a hysterectomy and I think it led to the collapse of her first marriage.  I don't think she was ever free of depression for very long in her entire life. In your charity could you please say an Ave for her?

This quote haunts me....

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

For the Forgotten Dead

Words of Wisdom

“Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”

Sadly it was not a modern Catholic woman who said this but Margaret Nadauld, a Mormon. 

Lord have mercy

Into every life a time of tragedy and great suffering must fall. Everybody has a lonesome valley to walk through. My Uncle Junior and my mother may be about to walk into that valley. She noticed in their last conversation that he did not remember telling her something that he told her the day before and she says that he was "talking crazy," this morning on the phone. Junior's son called her a few days ago to tell her that Junior looked thin when Junior Jr. visited and there seemed to be signs of cognitive decline. Junior Jr. is going to take Uncle Junior into his home. My mother is the bravest person I've ever known but I can tell that she's afraid now. My Uncle Sonny Boy's dementia and death is still fresh in both our minds.

Halloween has gotten out of hand

When I was a child Halloween was for kids. Now it has decayed into something very low and nasty. When Rocky and I stepped out of church after Mass I saw four adults in Haloween costumes. One was a vampire and one was dressed as a prostitute and one was a cowboy. I'm not sure what the last one was because I looked away before I got a good look at him.  They were loud but looked away when parishioners glanced at them. When the church bells rang the Halloween revelers began wildly rocking back and forth toward the ground. I assume it was some sort of mockery of holy things  but as we hurried into our car I  wondered why these people felt the need to come to a Catholic church.

It's been a sickening week--- I binged on some restorative talks, crafts and a big boom

Holy Day of Obligations away from your own parish can be an adventure.

Mass was weird last night. Rocky was feeling bad so we did not go to the 7:30 PM Mass but went to an earlier one at St. Anthony's in Falls Church. We sat down in our pew and four or five teen aged girls sat down behind us. One dropped something and cursed. She blasphemed. Right there in church. Right in front of the Blessed Sacrament. At first I thought I had heard wrong. Then Rocky looked at me and whispered, "Did she just blaspheme?" "Yeah," was all I said. I looked back at the girls and an usher came up and told them to move. Rocky remained upset for the rest of Mass and later told me that he wished he'd stood up and rebuked them. He did not go to Communion. I wish I had done more than glare at them. 

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, Thou are the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Oh, be in a very special way the Good Shepherd of those poor lost priests who are also appointed by Thee to be leaders of Thy people, but who have broken the oath of their holy ordination and have become unfaithful to their exalted calling. Bestow upon these poorest of the poor the very fullness of that pastoral solicitude with which Thou dost so faithfully seek the sheep that are lost! Touch their hearts with the irresistible ray of grace which emanates from Thine all-merciful love! Enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, that they may turn away from all sin and error and come back to Thy holy altar and to Thy people. O most compassionate Savior! Remember that Thou didst once redeem the souls of Thine erring priests with Thy Precious Blood and in infinite preferential love didst impress upon them the indelible character of the priesthood. Put wholly to shame those miserable helpers of Satan who lay snares for the virtue of priests and endanger the holy ideal of the priesthood. Most graciously accept our prayers and sacrifices for poor priests who have gone astray and hear our earnest petition.

 Amen 

Imprimatur - Bishop John F. Noll (April 18, 1948)

St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests

St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests

St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests

St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests

Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.

Thank you, Maureen Mullarkey

It's fashionable in Catholic circles to screech at Catholics who attend the traditional Mass. Even some priests who only offer it zealously wield the criticism lash.  Maureen Mullarkey has written a defense of traditional Catholics-- the smallest group in the all the different groups that make up the Church. .

The pope is blessing idols. The cardinals and bishops are embezzling, smuggling illegal aliens, and taking catamites. Father Skippy is running a freak show in the rectory and his antics have driven people out the door and some right out of the Faith. Sr. Scowl of the Pantsuit is escorting women into the abortion clinic and  weird, heretical stuff is going on the various New Movements but it's the man or woman who prefer to go to the traditional Mass who is the problem... yeah sure...
This gas-lighting campaign against traditional Mass goers is good for one thing. It's shows that somebody is afraid. Thanks to Maureen Mullarkey for being the Joseph Cotton character.

Boyer, Bergman and Cotton in "Gaslight".

Somebody threw the idols into the Tiber!