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."

Advent

 

The news is going to get weirder the closer we get to Christmas. Hollywood will release a blasphemous movie, or some professor will say something ridiculously  foul, or a crime will happen and someone will try to blame it on a supposed Christian... don't get fooled. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Random thoughts on a frosty Saturday afternoon

• The whole maelstrom around Erika Kirk is astonishing.  The woman has been accused of things so wild I won't repeat them. I don't have an informed opinion on any of that, but if I was advising the Widow Kirk I would tell her to make like Jackie Kennedy and say nothing in public for the next six months or more. She may be trying to keep her husband's dream alive but from a public relations stand point, she's failing. Work behind the scenes to publish a book, or create a foundation but the whole speaking gig needs to stop.  
  
  
  
  
•  I saw that 600, 000 illegals have been deported so far and I'm seeing a difference in my area. There is a gas station about two miles from my home that had a huge group of Hispanic men hanging around every day. They drank heavily, fought, regularly stabbed each other, and harassed women who went to the market next door or were at the gas station. Week after week, the police reports listed arrests for assault and battery. I noticed back in the Summer that there were less men hanging out. Now, when we drive by I see either a handful of men or nobody.  For the first time in my memory there are no large groups of men in the Home Depot or U-Haul parking lots.  I am amazed.  
  
  
  
  
  
• Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was disappointing this year. Young Father says the Novus Ordo Mass as best as it can be done but the homily was wasn't great. It's not his fault. The pastor likes "fun", jokey homilies and perhaps between him and some of the more vocal parishioners, I think, young Fr. has been "encouraged" to make his homilies less like adult theology  and more like a pep talk for elementary aged school children.  Attendance was not great either. Perhaps people took off work and went to one of the day Masses instead of the 6PM, that Rocky and I went to. 
  
  
  
  
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• I was doing my Saturday cleaning while listening to You Tube and really enjoyed Stephen Kokx's interview with  Frank Walker. Later I listened to bits of Kennedy Hall's video on Nick Fuentes and his most recent one  which is meant to be an encouragement and warning to Gen Z men.  I did not enjoy the Hall experience and I don't see either  video going over well with the target audience. Kennedy has a tendency to come off as somewhat  pompous and I think that the Z generation is even less tolerant of what they consider to be "Boomer slop condescension," than even my folks, Gen X are. Kennedy is either a Millennial in the older age range or a younger  Generation X so he really should know that.