Mass in a mask

 It's allergy season and I started coughing at Mass. Several people looked at me and gave me some hard stares. I felt Rocky tense up beside me. If anyone had dared to say anything to me he was ready to tell them off. 

Mass before pews

 

Excuse me, I have a nitpick.

 

George Neumayr, confirming what @TaylorRMarshall said yesterday regarding Steubenville: https://t.co/YYqJVzH759 pic.twitter.com/MmrAjEDg9y

— MrCasey (@MrCasey62) August 22, 2020

I don't know anything about the rest of this but the last lines leave me mystified.  Monsignor Jameson, was rector of St. Matthew's Cathedral long before Donald Wuerl arrived from Pittsburgh. 

a beautiful homily for the Feast of the Assumption

 The Assumption was not a Holy Day of obligation this year and there was not a word about it at Mass today. Here's a beautiful homily for the feast. 

and here we are

 

Love and sacrifice

A young priest posted this and some people complained. He pointed out that this quote is from Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the response was silence. Now, if you've read this blog you already know that saying Archbishop Sheen said something is not the end of the conversation for me. Archbishop Sheen was sterling before Vatican II but afterwards he said and did some disappointing things. However, Archbishop Sheen was absolutely correct here. 

Anyone who's been married knows that marriage is not a bed of roses. Romance and  true love are not the same. When my husband's grandfather was dying his wife fed him, bathed him and sat by him until the end.  When my grandfather became bed-ridden, my grandmother had to move the family from the farm to town and get a job as a cook in a local restaurant.  My grandfather died when he was only 51. There are no poems or pop songs about home nursing or watching your fine young husband become helpless.

My husband has sat in waiting rooms while I've had surgeries, medical procedures and doctor visits. He's been there  when I had the flu, bronchitis and migraines. I've taken care of him after his surgeries. And you know what? Those were days of grace. 

When we married my in-laws were not happy. My mother-in-law even called my mother and asked if she couldn't convince me to to get an annulment.  My mom set her straight but the problem remained for years. I was the wrong class and the wrong religion. My husband hung on to me harder. In contrast, when my in-laws overstepped in my brother-in-law's marriage he clung to them and his wife found herself working hard to please Big Daddy and Big Mama. My brother-in-law is divorced today. 

 Love requires sacrifice. It requires bearing with unpleasantness and overcoming our own desire for comfort, laziness or  fun for the sake our beloved. Lady Gaga is not singing about cleaning up your spouse's vomit... for the second time that night. Jay Z and Beyonce are not doing power ballads about standing by your child's grave and being strong for your spouse. Nobody is giving Ted Talks about holding on together  when the factory closes or about going from shopping at Macys to shopping at Goodwill when times get hard. Yeah, there is suffering in marriage along with joy. Pretending that doesn't exist is foolish. 

 

Rest in peace, dear lady

 My mother-in-law had ovarian cancer. She had massive surgery and lived with a colostomy bag for 15 years. All of her friends from the chemo ward died. She held on until a new surgeon was able stitch her together in such a way that she no longer needed the bag. I remember how happy she was when she was able to go to the bathroom like a normal person again. My mother-in-law's insides were held together by prayer and pelvic mesh.  She  survived to see her sons married, and to know her grandchildren. She went back to work but eventually her kidneys, damaged by the chemo, began to fail. She fought every day in some form for 23 years. Ovarian cancer is awful and watching what it did to my mother-in-law left me speechless.  

Geska Lima was a beautiful soul, a great lady whom brightened up Catholic Twitter with her wisdom, her prayers and meditations. She fought her ovarian cancer with great courage and when her doctor's finally told her there was no hope she tried alternative treatments. Now she has passed away. May the angels lead her to Paradise. 

Parents beware

 Two days ago I read a Twitter post by a teacher who was concerned that since he will be teaching via Zoom parents will be able to hear what he's telling the kids about sex issues. Parents, if a grown man wants to talk to your kid without you knowing what he's telling them, something funky is going on. 
If a grown man wants to talk to your kid about sex, something funky is going on. If a grown man frets about how to get around you and calls you a "helicopter" or "snow plow" parent because you pay attention to what he's trying to do then you have a problem. Parents beware and keep your guard up. Any teacher who wants you to leave the room in your own home needs to be challenged and corrected. 

None of this kind of thing is new. Bad people go where the kids are and there have always been teachers who overstepped their bounds. Decades ago, my mother got a phone call from her oldest brother, Jr. He was 17 then and triumphantly told her that "they" (parents) had finally got one of their teachers. The teacher was a pervert who had flirted with and seduced students. When the principal, school board and most importantly, the parents found out he was run out of town and out of the county. 

Go read the Little House on the Prairie series or watch an old movie, particularly an old Western. Teachers were held to a very high standard up until the 60s. Parents demanded that teachers to be as respectable as a nun and before the advent of teacher's unions, teachers got fired and lost their license to teach if there was proof of inappropriate behavior. Why were parents so strict? Because the man or woman who has custody of your child's mind for hours has a powerful impact that can shape or warp them for the rest of their lives. 

Is Biden crazy or crazy like a fox?

 

Joe Biden is not a good Catholic and if he ever was, he hasn't been for decades. I've wondered for some time if he isn't a sly trickster as well. When he pawed and sniffed women and girls in public we saw the people  around him get these stunned looks on their faces or they did the 1000 yard stare. Some people shook their heads and said it just Joe being...eccentric. Others were rightfully appalled and thought he was either losing control of his faculties or a narcissistic pervert or both.

Every now and then I wonder if  the old rogue isn't pulling an I Claudius? Emperor Claudius if you remember from the book and the series, had to pretend to be a harmless, half wit so he would be ignored by his immediate family's enemies. The scene where he is crowned and then stuns all the Roman court by suddenly speaking and behaving normally is still one of the most thrilling I've ever seen. 

Is Biden a pitiful figurehead being used by his family, and some shady characters or is he a straight up villain playing his supporters for useful idiots? Hey, it's 2020. Anything short of zombies and dragons would not surprise me one bit. 

 

I saw this gorgeous Last Supper on the Les Femnes blog

See what we've been reduced to

Rocky usually stops in a church on the way home from work to do his holy hour. He was struck by the elaborate directional arrows at this parish and saddened by the closing of the Adoration chapel. 

Be discreet and protect your priest

Do you have a good priest who is not going to call the police on you if you take your mask off at Mass? Great. Don't put his name and parish on social media and don't post photos. You will surely get the priest into trouble with his bishop and you might be the reason why there's no more Mass at your parish. You could also get the priest in trouble with the law. Some states are sending spies to churches to look for violations.  Law enforcement has shown up at churches. Priests and Protestant clergy have been threatened with jail time. Be discreet.  Sensus Fidelium has a sobering video on this topic. 

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• In your charity could you pray for the mother of a friend of mine? She was taken by ambulance to the hospital yesterday. Her doctor would not see her until her COVID test came back negative but by the time it did she was in bad shape.  
  
  
  
  
  
• I've read numerous stories about how Bill Gates's vaccines have damaged women and children in India and at least one African country but his defenders always say this was  just a bad batch of vaccine or that sometimes people have bad reactions and the individual tragedies don't matter in the face of the greater good.  Think about the women and girls who ended up sterilized. What kind of life do they have now? Infertility is considered a curse in many cultures and it's not uncommon for a man to cast aside a wife who can't have children or to take a second wife. A young girl who has been sterilized faces no chance of marriage.  That bad batch of vaccine has doomed her to a life of loneliness, and degradation. Nobody in her village is going to marry her.  If she's lucky she can stay with her family and be a beloved aunt. If she's not lucky she could end up as a prostitute. Knowing this how on earth can people spout those flippant bad batch excuses. 
  
  
  
  
  
• There once was a writer who had a beautiful blog. Her writing was elegant, her vocabulary was obviously that of a highly educated person and her devotional posts were inspiring. Despite all this I was not fond of her. She had that habit of humble bragging, which I cannot stand. Don't call me a worldling because I take a day trip to the lake or shop at  Walmart when you are jetting off to Europe twice a year with  the excuse that you're going on pilgrimage or an "important conference". I stopped reading her. 
  
  
  
  
  
• I refuse to receive Communion in the hand so Rocky has had to ask priests for the Precious Blood for me. So far they've been willing.
  
  
  
  
• Msgr. Bastress who was the pastor at Saint Alphonsus in Baltimore was a kind, patient man. I went to Mass there twice. May he rest in peace. If it wasn't for him many people in more than one state would not have had access to the traditional Mass. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• One sign that the Catholic Church is the only one is that the forces of evil always go after our churches. Nobody cares about the Mormons or the Seven Day Aventists. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Never trust anyone who constantly cracks  pedophilia jokes. They aren't being "edgy," they are telling you what they find fascinating. 

I thought this was a joke

It's not.  

I bet this story won't become national news

Folks we're in trouble. 

Pie Jesu

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon.

• The DC diocese will reopen this weekend. Parishioners may not use the restroom before or during Mass and you have to leave right after.  Most adults should be able to hold themselves for an hour but what about those who have various medical issues? Men of a certain age tend to urinate a lot more than they did in their youth. A few weeks ago we read that if people really need to go they can ask the ushers and then a team will assemble to sanitize the restroom after they leave. That has apparently been dropped. I suspect many people responded that they didn't want to humiliate themselves by having to beg for a restroom and didn't want to open the restroom door to find a grim group at the door waiting for Typhoid Mary to leave. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Things aren't looking too good for our country. The mystic Therese Neuman predicted that America would not be conquered from the outside but would fall from the inside. It doesn't matter that the majority just want to get back to normal and that this current unpleasantness will pass. It only takes a devoted or fanatical ten percent to move a nation. The rest of us will just go along with it. As for the bad times passing I will point out that Communism lasted for 70 plus years in Russia. Everyone who said "This will pass," in 1917 died waiting. It hasn't passed in Cuba and it hasn't passed in China.  

• Monsignor Rossi is not going anywhere. I won't be donating to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception anymore. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After being my Uncle Sonny Boy's guardian until his death my opinion of nursing home staff is very low. After watching videos of nurses and doctors wriggling and gyrating my trust level is shot. Atrocities like this one keep happening and I don't think we will see anybody going to prison. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A friend from work told me a horrible story. She was in a departmental Zoom meeting when her manager steered the conversation away from work to talking about the riots and BLM. Each person in the meeting was "encouraged" to "speak out". My friend was upset and being put on the spot. This was akin to your manager demanding to know how you vote or what your religion is. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I think the country never should have locked down. It was not worth the damage to our economy or to the nation's mental health. People have lost their jobs. If you're over 50, you are going to have a hard time getting a new job that was as good as what you had. Some folks probably aren't going to work full time in their fields ever again. People  have committed suicide. Depression and madness has skyrocketed. Ten years from now people are still going to struggling from the mental fall out. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• My Jesus, mercy!
•  

  
  

  
  

If you've ever mocked a friend or relative who was afraid to go to the hospital during the lock down it's past time to apologize

"It turned out that I was having a coronary, thus the breathlessness. I had to sit in the emergency room until they tested me for the Wuflu. Two hours later they came back and said I was negative, which I already knew. I sat there for 24 hours until they found me a room." 

I just read a comment on Non Veni Pacem  from a woman who had a horrifying experience in the ER and I don't blame anybody who is scared to go to a hospital in these terrible days. You will be alone with no family member to fight for you. The staff will immediately focus on Corona and it will be hours before your actual needs are addressed unless you present in the ER with blood loss or have an ambulance crew to vouch for you. How many people have died over this? We will never know. 

I have not forgotten

Ann Barnhardt calls out the Trad Inc. folks who went crazy back in March calling anybody who wanted to go to Mass a granny killer*, stupid or pious show-offs and now have the nerve like they never thought Corona was a big deal. Miss Barnhardt names no names but I'm thinking about two specific people who got very nasty to anyone who didn't think the Corona virus was akin to the plague. One of them was snappish as a rabid animal at the very idea of people wanting to go outside and even more furious that they dared to express a longing to return to church. This individual was so over the top with hysteria I was almost alarmed. 

*Turns out the grandparent killers were the governors who forced Corona patients into nursing homes

As it turned out, the virus wasn't the worst thing by a long shot