The Holy Family

I love this painting showing the Holy Family on what I'm guessing must be Passover dinner. 

St. Therese Novena

Pray twenty four Glory Be's with twenty four St. Therese, of the Child Jesus, pray for us.

This is not cute

St. Louis de Monfort, pray for us

St. Padre Pio, pray for us

St. John Vianney, pray for us

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us

St. Anthony Mary Claret, pray for us

St. Augustine, pray for us

St. Ambrose, pray for us

St. Ingnatius of Antioch, pray for us

Holy priest martyrs North America, pray for us.

Be consoled

HT to Les Femmes

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• I have such a feeling of deja vu these days. It's like I've seen so much of what's going on in the news before. I guess either Americans naturally go through cycles or the powers that  be manipulate us into the same thing over and over again. Right now, fools seem to want to relive the 70s. I was a little kid in the 70s but I know I don't want to go through all that again. As I recall, many of the college kids seemed to be crazy, the clothes were hideous, and the women outside of my church and family all seemed to be mad all the time. Back in the 70s my father could shake his head, turn off the TV and tell me that the people in New York and California were nuts (sorry, if you live there) but that everything was going to be okay as soon as Carter* left and that I should'n't worry. Today, you can't even shield your children by turning off the TV.
  
  
  
  
• Rest in peace, Norma.

• I was very moved by the introit at Mass this week : The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrow of hell encompassed me : and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy Temple.   I will love Thee, o Lord, my strength : the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. v. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 

• Every single time I've read something by Ann Barnhardt and said to myself, "Oh no, Ann, that can't be right," I've been wrong and she's been right.  This latest post of hers explains everything.
  
  
• India, like Pakistan and Turkey is, once you get past the tourist section and hit the villages, a pretty horrible place. May God have mercy on this poor man who was killed like the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste 
  
  
• Several years ago an man went out to dinner at a well known restaurant. Six weeks later he became sick. His lab work showed that the poor man had typhoid. After an investigation it was discovered that the salad prep boy at the fancy restaurant was a typhoid carrier. The man sued but lost because the strain of typhoid the salad prepper had did not match what the victim had. The restaurant owners saved money in hiring an illegal alien but they lost in bad publicity and in the money it cost to defend themselves in court. One of the major problems with illegals is that they have not had a physical proving that they aren't carrying a dread disease.
  
  

I'm cutting this out and taping it to the inside cover of my 2017 planner

• As rich as Melinda Gates is, she still is not happy. A happy woman does not spend all her time going around meddling in the lives of other women and telling them to kill their children. 

* My father was a straight ticket Democrat but even he was sick of Jimmy Carter  and since he couldn't bring himself to vote for Teddy Kennedy because of the disgusting Chappaquiddick affair he was happy to see Reagan. 

The Divine Shepherdess

Novena to St. Valentine

O glorious advocate and protector,
St Valentine,
look with pity upon our wants,
hear our requests,
attend to our prayers,
relieve by your intercession the miseries
under which we labour,
and obtain for us the divine blessing,
that we may be found worthy to join you
in praising the Almighty for all
eternity: through the merits of
Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pray, then, O holy Martyr, for the Faithful, who are so persevering in celebrating thy memory. The day of Judgment will reveal to us all thy glorious merits. Oh! intercede for us, that we may then be made thy companions at the right hand of the Great Judge, and be united with thee eternally in heaven. 

Antiphon: This Saint fought, even unto death, for the law of his God, and feared not the words of the wicked; for he was set upon a firm rock.

Let us pray:

Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who solemnize the festival of blessed Valentine, Thy Martyr, may, by his intercession, be delivered from all the evils that threaten us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

(Here mention your petitions)

Our Father.., Hail Mary.., Glory Be...

The happy month

My mother and I both have birthdays in February about a week apart and my wedding anniversary comes on March 1. Along with Candlemass we usually are celebrating or planning something for most the month.

A woman to admire

Mother  Mary Alphonsa dedicated herself to caring for cancer patients. She is the founder of the hospice movement. Mother Mary was the daughter of author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. She walked away from Protestantism and a comfortable, pampered life to serve Our Lord.

Pray for us, St. Ignatius

Random thoughts on the second feast of St. Agnes

• Remember the whole Anglican-use Catholic thing?  The Anglicans were told they could become Catholic and keep on using their lovely old rite at Mass.  Promises were made, trust was asked for and received and it's come to this: Bishop Garcia-Siler has ordered the pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement, the first Anglican Use Pastoral Provision parish in the United States to step down. The bishop doesn't say what his problem with the pastor is but it is obvious that there is something about the priest or the parish that the bishop doesn't like and he's decided to fix it using the blunt instrument known as "time off to pray and reflect". Maybe it would be better to just convert and don't worry about bringing the entire parish and building with you. One day a new bishop and a new pope may come along who weren't part of your original deal and may decide that they are not bound to it. 

• St. Agnes is one of the few saints who has two days of honor. Her feast day is on January 21 and today is  her second feast shared with St. Peter Nolasco.
  
  
  
• Remember how "experts" told us to calm down about Pope Francis because he doesn't care about liturgy? Well, the pope has ordered a review of the Mass translation we currently use. Some people are upset. I am not. Constant change in the Novus Ordo Mass is not a bug, it is a feature. Every few years there will be something new and damn the complainers. That's just the way it is. Now, what if the New, New, New Mass comes with rubrics that are so heretical that they might as well be Lutheran with a dash of voodoo and a side a Pentecostalism, will regular lay Catholics do? For the most part, nothing.The folks who grumble will be told to shut up and they will. Some people will stop going to Mass, either completely or will be C&E and Ash Wednesday Catholics. Others who can do so, will go to the Eastern rites parishes or go Orthodox. A few, very few will go to a Christ the King parish or to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter for as long as they exist. An even tinier number will head to the Anglican rite churches or to the SSPX mission chapel.
  
  
• On Thursday evening we had six seminarians who came for the March for Life attend Mass. It was great seeing them. They were all so young and they looked like angels.
  
  
  
• Ann Barhardt is reporting that the Knights of Malta have been crushed because the Grand Master made a mistake which led to his forced resignation. As I've said before, if you want to be a public Catholic you must be clean. That is to say, that you must be above reproach. There must not be anything in your past or your private life that can be used against you. If you committed a mortal sin by yourself or have been an accessory to someone else in their mortal sin, go to Confession, do penance and resign your post now or make a public announcement  about what you did before an enemy finds it out---because the enemy will. The blackmailer is evil yes, but you brought in on yourself by committing the sin and thinking you could excuse it by all the good work you are doing for Our Lord and His Church.
  
  
  
• Young men, did your girlfriend or the girl you've been wanting to ask out on a date go that so-called Women's March in DC last week? Take that as a sign and ditch her. Unless you want to play weakling Ahab to her Queen Jezebel get away from her now.  

The Holy Face

Today would have been my father's 77th birthday. May God have mercy on his soul, may he rest in peace, my he see the Holy Face in glory.

The Holy Sepulcher Chapel

The DC Franciscan monastery has a replica of the Jerusalem chapel. I read a book written by a priest pilgrim in 1910, who complained about the Orthodox management of  the chapel and later I read a book by another pilgrim priest written in 1950, who complained about the same thing and still another priest in the 1990s who also the same complaint. All of them were so discreet and assumed that the readers were well familiar with what they were writing about that they didn't plainly say what was so wrong. 

A Catholic lady's every day carry

Wallet
Keys for my home and my mother's
Charger
Flashlight
Pen
Prayer book
Rosary (it's a replica of the WWI US soldier's combat rosary--finally one that I can't break)
Mascara
Lipstick
Pocket knife with a bottle opener-- I love this thing
Emergency kit with gloves, travel sized over the counter medicines, a contact lens case, hand sanitizer, an N95 respirator mask (there have been frequent smoke incidents on my commuter train) an emergency space blanket which only weights a few ounces, Razac hand lotion and a chapel veil with bobby pins
Not shown but they are always with me:
My phone, which I used to take the photograph
The brown scapular that I'm wearing

The Divine Shepherdess

St. Michael the Arcangel, defend us in battle

Mother of Mercy, Pray For Us

A careless nun's influence

Too many orders have fallen a long, sad way from the path this nun tread

A friend of mine once told me the story of an incident from the 70s when her family had an  an unhabited, pantsuit  nun as a weekend house guest. The nun was so difficult to deal with that she couldn't live with the other nuns in the convent. Instead of dismissing or correcting her the order simply paid for an apartment for her to live in.  At some point my friend and her brother, who were both quite young at the time  went to the refrigerator to get a candy bar which was the last of their Easter treats. It was gone. The wacky nun, who really liked candy, ate it during the night and  laughed at the disappointed little boy. Today my friend's brother never goes to Mass except for funerals and weddings. It's a silly reason to lose one's Faith but life is often silly and he was just a kid.  Sister Modern said and did a lot of foolish things over the eight years the children were in elementary school and the boy was repulsed.

random thoughts on a three day weekend

• If anyone had fantasies about moving to Malta I suggest you read the recent statement by the Maltese bishops. There is no Catholic wonderland, not Ireland, not Italy and not Malta.
  
  
• Rocky and I went to a wedding yesterday. It was in the traditional latin form and the couple had a Misa Cantata. It was beautiful. The guests were wonderful. I didn't see one scantily clad woman and not one man made a vulgar speech or got drunk at the reception. The bride and bridesmaids all were modestly dressed and the bride's gown was gorgeous. She seemed to float like a fairy queen down the aisle. They had five priests at the wedding and incredible food for the luncheon. I think it's the best wedding we've been to in years.
  
  
• In order to make it as a top model you have to strip naked and let strangers photograph you.  We know from reading the news and biographies that many models suffer from eating disorders and drug use. Kathy Ireland couldn't go along with this because of her Christianity and got out of the modeling game. She's done spectacularly well in the Christian and lifestyle and furniture  marketplaces, but she's the only one. Other models realize that they just can't do the things required in order to make it to supermodel status and don't try to go beyond steady catalog work.  Others use it as a means of meeting marriageable men they never would have run into back home. Like Ireland, the sensible ones get out as soon as they can.
  
  If a young singer wants to make it to the top in the pop and hip hop world you have to either embrace occultist behavior or just ape the symbols whenever you perform.  Talent has very little to do with who makes it. One of the most talented Soul singers around was a lady by the name of Sharon Jones. She died last year and most people have never heard of her because despite that big powerhouse voice she was short, plain, plump and was not about to make a fool of herself in public by performing lewd dance moves or wearing ridiculous for her age costumes on stage. If you would admire pop and hip hop artists for anything but their music remember that drug use, alcoholism and sex with everything that moves is normal for this industry.
  
  To be an A list actor one must do pornographic love scenes, go almost naked when attending public functions if you are young and female, and have sex with the people who cast you in movies. Tales of the casting couch have been a joke for 100 years in Hollywood but it's really not funny. Hollywood is so full of drugs, alcoholism, tacit approval of pedophilia on screen and it is rumored, massive practiced pedophilia in private that it's like a perpetually clogged sewer pipe. Why on earth do Americans with IQs in the normal range give a hoot about what any of these people think or say outside their own purview?
  
  
• The Doloran Fathers had to leave Oklahoma but have found a new place in Colorado.
  
  
• I saw this snippet of a talk  by Charles Coulombe  on Twitter this morning. He explains one powerful reason, other than the ever present sword, why Muslims are so persuasive in their conversion efforts.  https://twitter.com/TumblarHouse/status/814678605229735936  
  Coulombe  sounds like a  bad John F. Kennedy imitator mixed with Foghorn Leghorn and has a strong not particularly funny comedic streak. Both these things can get a bit tiresome when he's giving long talks but if you can get past that, his talks on Catholic history are very interesting.

A nun