Lost Girl

Last weekend, my husband, Rocky and I saw something we've never seen before. A young girl, was posed suggestively on the curb at the shopping strip we always go to for Japanese food. She was scantily clad and it was hard to be sure how old she was under the makeup. She had a cut open knee and  looked, frankly, like she was for sale. She still appeared healthy but her eyes-- her eyes looked like she was already dead. Seeing a thousand yard stare on someone so young is deeply unsettling. 

We've noticed prostitutes walking by the motels in the rough section of town but this is the first time I've ever come across one on our end. This strip mall isn't located away from everything or in an industrial area. It's surrounded by apartment buildings and homes. People walk to the grocery store. Old men sit in and around the Starbucks chatting and sipping coffee all day. This is a residential area. Don't tell me that the economy is fine and crime isn't all that bad. Things are getting noticeably ugly at a rapid pace. After we picked up our food we looked for the girl but she was gone. St. Mary of Egypt, St. Margaret of Cortona, St. Philomena, St. Agnes, St. Maria Goretti, please pray for this lost girl. 

Our Lady, patroness of the Americas, please pray for us

The line from this Broadway* song, is in my head today.

Dice are Rolling,

The knives are out
Would be presidents are all around
I can't say they mean harm, but they'd each give an arm
To see us six feet underground... 

God have mercy on the soul of Mr. Corey Comperatore, who was murdered yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania. He  will be an afterthought or a one line mention in the news but his poor family has been devastated. I'm afraid for the country. We are living in monstrous times and it is going to get worse. Humanly speaking we are up the creek and heading to the river. We lost the paddles a few decades back and there is a waterfall a few miles away. I think we are past the point of secular remedy.

Our Lady, patroness of the Americas, please pray for us. Intercede with your Divine Son!

* "Dice Are Rolling" from Evita

Random thoughts on a Sunday morning

 

• The fool always wants to go back to the fire, thinking it will be different this time.  A few days ago I was reading a discussion on Afghanistan. The original poster was upset because Afghan men frequently take young brides. The responses were horrified but they were also filled with women saying we should do something about it. Folks Afghanistan is what it is and interfering never works. It's nickname is "The grave of empires," for a reason. John Bull couldn't force them into the 19th century, Ivan Ivanovich with Soviet brutality couldn't conquer them and Ricky Bobby armed with feminism and porn couldn't make a lasting change in their culture either. Anybody who says "we" should force First World standards on them is a fool who  should be ignored or at least given a free trip to Afghanistan to put their talk into action.

• Pray for Cardinal Vigano.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Pray for Cardinal Zen, the smack down he put on Michael Lofton and indirectly, all the laypeople who make their livings off the Faith was magnificent. Stop giving these people money. 
  
  
  
  
• Rocky and I went to a different parish last Sunday and it was a good experience. People came in and sat down in the pews in silence. Nobody was talking about their TV shows or the grandchildren's soccer game.   One family did a devotion at the Immaculate Conception chapel before Mass. Another family did the Stations of the Cross. When Mass began, the lector was fully dressed and didn't feel the need to act out the reading. The cantor didn't try to give us a mini concert. The old priest said Mass with care and his homily in no way resembled a stand up comedian's act. He preached on the Gospel. Communion was from the hands of two priests and a deacon. There were no Eucharistic Ministers. That was all so refreshing. 

• Thank you, Fr. Nix. This little video is gut wrenching.   Everyone who's pastor refused or ignored them or allowed their secretary to mock them when they asked for a religious exemption, stand tall. Every pastor who refused, remember this. 

Are you still defending Rupnik's art?

To everyone who still defends the mosaics by the foul and vicious Fr. Marko Rupnik because they think you must separate the art from the artist and who use the "Caravaggio gave the Church some of her greatest art, yet he was crazy and once committed murder," excuse,  I ask you to do two  things: look and then consider. Go somewhere that has Rupnik's work, such as the  JPII Shrine   or look at one of his mosaics online then consider this: The woman who cut or placed  the individual pieces that make up the mosaic may have been one of the nuns that Fr. Rupnik abused, physically, psychologically, and sexually. 

Caravagio got into a fight with a pimp and killed him. Rupnik is accused of creating a cult of personality, and of attempting to have sex with as many nuns as possible in the convent he co-founded. Some sources say that he abused 20 women, other sources it was more like 40. He's accused of breaking a nun's finger. He is accused of forcing a nun to drink his semen from a chalice. You know that the chalice only has one purpose so this was also an act of stomach turning blasphemy and desecration. 

Apparently, if you were a female interested in art and were at the Loyola Convent or at the Aletti Center you faced being crushed mentally by the weight of Rupnik's unchecked narcissism.  Your blood, sweat and tears went into those ugly mosaics. If you were one of those who got the courage to complain you were either or ignored and called crazy or punished for lying. This went on for 30 years and who knows what's going on in his retreat in Slovenia. 

The  Loyola Community convent has been shut down and thank God. It was not a true convent, where nuns served and worshipped Jesus, but a cult and the apparent god was Rupnik. The  Alleti Center needs to be defunded. Both entities didn't just happen while the eyes of the shepherds were elsewhere. Like a number of  apostolates, movements, and orders that came about or gained popularity in the 80s and 90s these were lavishly cultivated and admired like putrid corpse flowers in a botanical garden. 

Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

•  I once went to a Mass that had a Charismatics service right afterwards. They had men standing by to catch people and  blankets to keep those "slain in the Holy Spirit" warm until they got up. I did not like what I was seeing. If you find  yourself in the presence of someone howling gibberish, and/or falling into a faint  in church, know that is not of God.  Have you ever noticed that  these people  never suddenly start talking to a non English speaker in their own language?  I know of only one outsider who said he understood what a speaker of tongues was saying and that person, a priest from an African country said they were screaming blasphemies.
  
  A few years ago, Rocky helped an Afghan family at Aldi's to understand how the shopping carts and quarter work. He did not speak Dari or Pashto, he mostly pantomimed and the husband got the picutre. Presumably, if a  a person with the gift of tongues had happened by, that individual would have been able to take charge and explain the Aldi shopping carts with eloquence and with a perfect accent. Ann Barnhardt says it better than me here. 
  
  
  
  
• Philip Lawler has a question.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I was at the gastroenteritis's office yesterday and mentioned that the last serious coughing, gagging reaction I had was when my marijuana adoring neighbor walked by me. The doctor told me that he went to college in the 70s and weed was everywhere on campus but it didn't smell like a long- dead skunk like it does today. 
  
  
  
  
• If anyone signed up for this, then they simply can't be helped outside of Divine Intervention. 

Random thoughts on Monday morning.

•  My Uncle Jr. is home now. His son, my mother, his doctor and various friends and family have all spoken sternly to him and his freezer is now full of frozen dinners, and he has a case of Ensure in his pantry. He's never going to be happy eating three meals a day but if we can at least keep him at a healthy level of nutrient intake that would be a great blessing. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You know, this Harrison Butker thing is strange. A man gives a commencement speech at a small Catholic college that most people, Catholics included probably have never heard of so why was this pounced on by so many liberals? Do these people spend their lives searching for things to be offended by? Are they monitoring/spying on Catholics? Does anybody find this disconcerting?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• When Judgement Day comes one of the many astounding things we will all hear is the number of people who left the Church because of the man, boy and ultimately woman hating  1970s-80s, pant suit mannish nuns like the The Benedictines of Mount Saint Scholastica. This type of professed religious  repulsed me when I was in high school but thank God, I had the example of real Daughters of Charity sisters who taught most of the classes.  As an adult I still  do not want any part of nuns like this. These fakes  need to be suppressed. If Saint Scholastica were to walk into their monastery she'd be very displeased.

• Pentecost Mass was... disappointing. The homily was sweet but I felt that it was appropriate for children rather adults and we didn't get to hear Veni Sancte Spiritus. I went to the Canon's You Tube channel for a decent homily. 

In your charity and 3 tips on finding a Catholic bride....

•  In your charity could you please pray for my Uncle Jr? He's afraid of gaining weight so he only eats one meal a day with a mineral oil chaser. Snacks are anathema. He's been like this  for years. On Mother's Day he was invited to a family dinner and  did a little extra fasting in order to prepare for the big meal. Well, not surprisingly, he fainted in his home,  knocked himself out and lay helpless on the floor for hours. He'll be the hospital for 48 hours of tests and observation. Eating disorders are not exclusive to young women. He's got to change his diet ASAP. 
  
  
  
  
• I've noticed some young Catholic men are asking on social media why they can't find a good wife. Well, I can offer three suggestions.
  
  
  
• First, check your hygiene. I can't even tell you how many times I've sat in a pew and wondered where that hot blast of pure funk was coming from. In the suburbs, it's usually wafting off the young guy sitting in front of me. Guys, it may be honest sweat and you may have the body of an Adonis but if you stink, the young ladies will not smile upon you.
  
  
  
• Second, have a job, a real one. Your part time social media manager job for a small Catholic  podcast will not support a family and neither will your Mechanical Turk or  Door Dash delivery gigs. 
  
  
  
• Thirdly, mind your manners. If you can't speak and conduct yourself in a genteel manner around a girl, how do you expect to get a date, much less married?