Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

•  Mundabor has written a harsh epitaph for poor Pope Benedict that made me wince at the truths and very sad for Benedict. He didn't have the  charisma or energy to follow the JPII papacy model. He was cursed with very shady people in his own private apartment and he was simply overwhelmed by the wolves. 
  
  
  
  
  
• What did I say?  It's started already. The victim is 18.
  
  
  
  
  
• As horrible as the beagle puppy experiments are and I do have to  ask why it was even done; go back 1000 years and any Bedouin could tell you what sandflies can do --- I think it's very telling about the state of our modern societal degeneracy that this is what it  took for normal people to finally get upset at Fauci.
  
  Where are the Western world's priorities? A pig kidney is successfully transplanted to a comatose woman who could not have given her consent and people cheer the progress of science. Elderly people in nursing homes were put into confinement and not allowed to see their friends, clergy and families until they reached near death, if that, depending on the locale and people went, "It's for their safety! Millions of babies have been dismembered or poisoned in the womb and have been had their organs cut of their precious bodies while still alive and people shrug but ...puppies, well that's just too far. 

 

 

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

 

random thoughts on a rainy Sunday night

• Kamala Harris has recorded a message that will be played at 300 black churches in support of Terry McCuliffe. That ought to be sign to the people in the pews  that they need to run for the doors.
  
  
  
  
  
• It didn't start in the 60s. 

• I was at Mass on Wednesday night and found this wonderful book on the parish's book case. It's incredibly helpful. My only nitpick is that it has John Henry Newman on the cover and I find his relationship with Fr. Ambrose St. John  and his behavior on the night of St. John's death to be disturbing. 

Holy Face Litany Short Version

I salute Thee, I adore Thee and I love Thee, O adorable Face of Jesus, my Beloved, noble Seal of the Divinity! Outraged anew by blasphemers. I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, most humbly beseeching Thee to repair and renew in me and in all men Thy Image disfigured by sin.

O adorable Face, which was adored with profound respect by Mary and Joseph when they saw Thee for the first time, have mercy on us.

O adorable Face, which in the Stable of Bethlehem didst ravish with joy the angels, the shepherds and the Magi

O adorable Face, which in the Temple didst transpierce with a dart of love the saintly old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna

O adorable Face, which, when Thou didst appear in the Temple at twelve years of age, didst fill with admiration the Doctors of the law

O adorable Face which possesses beauty always ancient and always new, have mercy...

   

 O adorable Face which is the masterpiece of the Holy Ghost, in which the Eternal Father is well pleased, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which is the ineffable mirror of the divine perfection, have mercy on us.

  

   Adorable Face of Jesus which was so mercifully bowed down on the Cross, on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of the world! Once more today in pity bend down towards us poor sinners. Cast upon us a glance of compassion and give us Thy peace.

O adorable Face, troubled and weeping at the tomb of Lazarus,

Adorable Face of Jesus which was so mercifully bowed down on the Cross, on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of the world! Once more today in pity bend down towards us poor sinners. Cast upon us a glance of compassion and give us Thy peace.

O adorable Face, brilliant as the sun, and radiant with glory on the Mountain of Tabor

O adorable Face, sorrowful at the sight of Jerusalem, and shedding tears on that ungrateful city,

O adorable Face, bowed down to the earth, in the Garden of Olives, and covered with confusion for our sins,

O adorable Face, bathed in a bloody sweat,  O adorable Face, kissed by the traitor Judas,

O adorable Face, struck by a vile servant, shamefully blindfolded, and profaned by the sacrilegious hands of Thine enemies, O adorable Face, defiled with spittle, and bruised by innumerable buffets and blows,

O adorable Face, whose Divine look wounded the heart of Peter, with a dart of sorrow and love,

O adorable Face which was washed and anointed by Mary and the holy women and covered with a shroud, have mercy on us.

Be merciful to us, O my God! Do not reject our prayers, when in the midst of our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thy adorable Face.

O adorable Face, all resplendent with glory and beauty on the day of the Resurrection, 

O adorable Face, all dazzling with light at the moment of Thy Ascension,

Be merciful to us, O my God! Do not reject our prayers, when in the midst of our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thy adorable Face.

    

    O adorable Face which is hidden in the Eucharist, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which will appear at the end of time in the clouds with great power and great                 majesty, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which will make sinners tremble, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which will fill the just with joy for all eternity, have mercy on us.

    O adorable Face which merits all our reverence, our homage and our adoration, have mercy on us.

    O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!

    O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!

    O Lord, show us Thy Face, and we shall be saved!

Weirdness at Adoration

 I saw the weirdest thing last evening. Rocky and I went to Adoration but the holy hour was ruined by one family.  They were sitting in the back but one row ahead of us and I guess they were trying to let each one of the children have a good view of the Blessed Sacrament. Every  ten minutes or so one of them would get up and move to a different pew closer to the altar and another one would return to the rest of the family who  would all shuffle to the right or left and then the next family member would get up and move to another pew. This zig zagging loop went around and around like this for the entire hour. 

Finally a man came in  and knelt down in the same pew as the family. The teenaged daughter  of the family leaned over to whisper to him. I didn't hear what she said but the man looked surprised and later I saw that he had to keep getting up from kneeling and sit or stand depending on the size of the child each time one  of them would do that bizarre musical chairs shuffle over him. He stayed in that pew though. 

One of the kids who looked about 13 or 14 must have decided that he didn't need to move and the teenaged daughter leaned over to give him a whispered tongue lashing. I saw the boy's cheeks flush beet red and he looked hurt. He got up stiffly and moved to another pew like she wanted. 

Rocky and I left as soon as our hour was over. The musical chairs bit seemed ridiculous, distracting and rude.

The other people in the chapel who were  sitting in  the  up front pews didn't see all this and were spared the distraction. I don't know what the parents were trying to accomplish but I don't see how turning Adoration into a game added to their children's devotion and I certainly didn't see it as charity to the other people in the pews or as reverent to the Lord. 

Random thoughts on a Monday afternoon

•  It hasn't even been a good month yet  and it's  started already.

• Usually at my job when someone reaches the 20 year mark they get a gift. My 20th work anniversary came and went with no comment from HR. I don't know if it's because I gave them resistance on the vax requirement or if they simply have dropped the graceful gesture altogether. 
  
  
  
  
• Pope Francis has not gone crazy. I think he's been like this all along. 
  
  
  
  
• The Fairfield Carmelites are in danger.
    
  
  
  
  
• Pray for us, Father Kaupan.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We had a very odd experience at Mass two weeks ago. It was  Young Adults Sunday and Rocky and I were surprised to see the bishop as the celebrant. There was a full choir, instead of one cantor and we were treated to the long versions of Protestant hymns including one during Communion that sounded like a man talking to a girlfriend. Many people attending the Mass appeared to take some care with their clothes and hair which is definitely not the norm. Both Rocky and I were taken aback because this Mass was celebrated with more seriousness than the Masses for Christmas and Easter. I'm not knocking the Young Adults Mass but it was disconcerting to see that the Mass celebrating them appeared to be more important than any other Mass held in the past year. 

Is Protestant Knowledge of the Bible Really Superior to that of Catholics? I Don't Think So.

I've been doing virtual Bible study at my current parish. On the first day the priest-- who is a fine young man and I like him--- made the same shaming speech that we Catholics always hear. It's the line about how Protestants know their bible so much better than Catholics and how we should imitate them presumably because if you can't quote whole chapters then you don't really love God.  That speech increasing irritates me the older I get. I sat and listened to Father and thought, 'So what!'

Yes---So what! I wonder if the people who make that shaming speech know any Protestants. When Saint Jerome said, "Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ," he was speaking to a world where most people were illiterate. Most people were hearing the Bible at Mass or at Vespers if they went to a monastery in the evening. St. Jerome was not saying pick up a Bible and twist the readings to whatever you want. Interpretation of the Bible without Tradition leads to heresy and disaster.

My  brother-in-law is a Jehovah's Witness. He can spit Bible verses like bullets from a machine gun but you know what? Ninety percent of the time he's wrong. The JWs interpretation of the Bible is flawed with horrifying results.  Think of all the JWs who have died because the JWs believe that blood transfusions are cannibalism and cause the victim who needed the transfusion to be damned. Think of all the JWs who lived and died believing that only exactly 144,000 people are going to Heaven and the rest will either live in Garden of Eden II or experience soul annihilation.  

Mormons are very serious about studying the King James Bible along with their Book of Mormon. A good Mormon can drop some quotes on you and expound on what they "really" mean. Their interpretation says that Our Lord and the Devil were brothers and that if you are a truly saintly Mormon you will be rewarded by God with being a god of your own planet. Their interpretation also forbids tea and coffee.

My mother's family are Baptists. Their interpretation of the Bible says that all you have to do is to accept that Jesus is Lord in your life and then you are saved forever. So you can go drinking and sin sexually on Saturday night but it's all good if you show up sober and embarrassed about the previous night on Sunday morning and pay your tithes. In fact, you don't have to go to church at all or just on holy days such as "Communion" First Sunday or just for Bible study as long as you pay your tithes. Oh, and divorce and remarriage is okay if the first spouse was not a godly person. I think St. Jadwiga, St. Monica, Blessed Elizabeth Leseur and St. Clotilda would laugh at that. My beloved uncle can quote the King James Bible at length. My dear cousin, his son  is the head deacon at his church and can do the same. 

Have you heard of the Scofield Bible? Millions of Evangelicals who devoutly study Cyrus Scofield's Bible's interpretation believe that the modern, secular state of Israel is holy and must be loved and unquestioningly defended on pain of sin. To put it bluntly, they believe that if you are not a Zionist you either need to get right with God or you are going to Hell.

Think of all the Protestants who believe in the Rapture. Their preacher's interpretation of the Bible tells them that they will be whisked away and avoid all the horrors of the End Times. 

I'm not writing this to mock these people but I think it's important that Catholics stop accepting constant demoralization in regards to formal Bible study.  If you are lucky the leader of your Bible study will keep referring to what St. Jerome and the other early Church Fathers said about the Bible and will point you towards Haydock's Commentary and/or St. Thomas Aquianas's Catena Aurea. If you aren't you'll get to hear about how Jesus choosing His apostles was like a quarterback choosing his team (I sat through that talk once) or how all of Salvation history is just some kind of feminist struggle. Bleech! 

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• Beware the priest who has a female fan club. When you see Father talking about soap operas or romantic comedies with his female buddies and if he allows his gal pals to mock the pious women in the parish don't be surprised when you see the Blessed Sacrament in a separate room and hear questionable things from the ambo. If you notice that the men in the parish don't come anywhere near him and he's never once crossed the threshold of the parish hall room where the men's group meets then you should not be surprised when Father Skippy eventually makes the news in a bad way.
  
  
  
  
• Last week was really hard. I didn't cook and barely cleaned. When I wasn't working I was lying in bed in an eye mask in the dark fighting  headaches. Rocky spent most of the evenings watching over me. Thank God for good husbands.

• This is a really good site for anyone who is new to the traditional Mass. 

• You need to read this.  And then, you  really need to read this.  Study it. I have many Muslim neighbors. Even the strictest of them look at the Afghans and shake their heads. Apparently thousands are already in my state and its just a matter of time before they are released into the general population. After that, some woman, girl or boy will be made to suffer. This group of men is not the same as the few Afghans who immigrated here over the decades and quietly fitted in. When a thousand guys show in your town or state at once it was in saner times seen as an invasion.
  I was in a discussion on a social media site and this subject came up. One person mentioned that Catholic Charities was heavily into resettlement with tax payer money and cursed us Catholics. While I objected to the curse I really couldn't say much of anything because it's true. When you give to Catholic Charities you are working against your own neighbor's interests and helping to stir up hostility. I've said it before and I'll say it again: When somebody's loved ones get hurt they aren't going to say, "Oh well Jewish groups bring immigrants here and so do Lutheran groups." They are going to say, "The Catholics! The Catholics!" That's not good. 

• My HR department sent out an e-mail on Friday announcing that the firm is 99% vaxxed and reminding us that 'Rona boosters will be available soon. I got so angry I deleted it. Damnit, it's not enough to threaten our jobs unless we take the vax but we have to be boosted too? No! 

• A witch has moved into my neighborhood. She has her posters everywhere offering to read the cards for foolish customers. I say the St. Michael prayer whenever I see them. 

• This Reverent Mass locator is very helpful. I was happy to see my old parish and my back up parish included.
  
  
  
  
• Have you ever noticed that the same women who scream the loudest about killing their children have nothing to say about putting the same amount of passion into not getting pregnant in the first place? It's become an open anti-sacrament. 

Random thoughts on a Thursday

• I've just been reading two essays by Iantto Watt, who posts on the William M Briggs site. Both are horrifying, particularly the janissary one because we can see that happening in every public school in America. 
  
  
  
  
• Who are the American civilians still in Afghanistan and why did they stay after May? How many of them are really Americans? I live in Northern Virginia where most middle to upper class people are either connected to the government in some form or fashion or are contractors. I know that contractor money is really sweet. Do a good job for one to five years and your bank account will be nice and plump when you get back home.  I get the financial incentive, but come on! What were these people thinking was going to happen when the American military left? 
  
  
  
  
• Water seeks its own level. Australia started out as a penal colony and despite its jolly image it has returned to it's beginnings.
  
  
  
  
• Although this particular story has a strong whiff of lie, (Remember the Belgian women! Remember the Kuwaiti preemies!) it's pretty obvious that the education money that American tax payers lost to Afghanistan didn't take. In 2021, people there still believe that they could ride on the outside of a plane like an overloaded truck. 
  
  
  
  

• Every moral panic or fad that grips America has its day and burns out. Usually these panics have victims whose lives are ruined or ended and the media runs off like to the next man-made crisis. To those who survive the covid era, please don't forget it. Please remember how your own family members cut ties with you over your vaccination status. Please remember that your neighbors lost their jobs. Please remember the dancing nurses and the doctors who said your unvaccinated uncle deserved to die. Please, years from now when it's all swept under the rug, those who survived  remember those who did not.
  
  
  
  

• May the souls of the Marines killed today in Kabul rest in peace and when Joe Biden goes to Mass this Sunday may the priest mention them in the prayers of the Faithful. 
  
  
  

Pray for Cardinal Burke.

 Cardinal Burke is a fat old man who travels a lot. This is not an insult, just a plain statement of the obvious. Doctors have a joke that pneumonia is the old man's "friend." It means that pneumonia and other respiratory issues tend to follow the elderly. It's not surprise that he is ill but I hope that the reports that he is on a ventilator are not true. I can tell you that if you see a report that he's on the vent and talking then the reporter is either lying or knows nothing about life support. Nobody on a vent is talking. You are heavily sedated. A person on life support is obviously, seriously ill and weak and getting them strong enough to be weaned off the vent is very hard. 

My uncle, Sonny Boy got pneumonia and a collapsed lung and needed the vent. He never was able to fully get off it. 

Now since we are in the age of the great pandemic,  pneumonia and flu seem to have vanished. Possibly untrained medical staff  overdid it with the vents last year and quite likely killed a lot of people. Presumably due to trial and error they have recovered their knowledge of how to use the machine. God willing poor Burke will come out of this alright but IF he has pneumonia and/or Covid and IF he is on life support Cardinal Burke's situation is very poor. I hope that his family or whoever has power of attorney for him is strong and sharp witted. 

Folie a deux

 I've said before that something is seriously off with Church Militant. It's like watching a  documentary on Folie a deux syndrome. Pardon my language, or not, but everything that comes from these people sounds like it was written by a rat who partied too hard at the outhouse and has gone insane. 

Randy Engel has been sounding the alarm for years about CM and there have been multiple incidents and  commentaries by big time bloggers about CM which I won't discuss here but it became clear to me that CM is not blessed with soundness on many matters.  I try to avoid anything out of CM because watching a folie a deux is disturbing. Please don't tell me that CM has done good work in the past. Right NOW it reminds me of the time I was a little girl playing in my grandmother's yard one long ago Summer.  I turned over a large rock in the soft red soil and exposed hundreds of gray, squirming bugs. I was repulsed and fled inside to never try that experiment again. If it is true that CM is an Opus Dei side project then the Escrivites need to reign it in because it has become embarrassing.

Look to the saints for your guidance in spiritual matters, not some media production of dubious provenance. 

Until the End of Time

 

For the love of God, His Church and His servants

 Several years ago Rocky and I were on vacation in Norfolk, Virginia and we went to the awesome Chrysler Museum to see the Tissot Life of Christ exhibit. We were deeply moved so were many of the other visitors. I saw quite a few people who were praying. This one water color painting stayed with me and was my inspiration for how I treat good priests. Every meal I make for my pastor, every act of hospitality is in imitation of the holy women who followed Our Lord and did their best to serve Him. 

This is the moment

 I've heard people criticize the generations of their parents and grandparents for sitting like lumps of cold mashed potatoes and dumbly accepting the loss of the Mass in the 60s. That's not fair and not completely true. Brave and devout people used the phone and  spent  hours mailing out hand stapled newsletters, flyers and letters to let people know where a TLM was being held. 

They offered their homes, raised money for hotel rooms, and hit the pavement to find venues. They supported the courageous priests, some of whom were elderly and suddenly expelled from their orders, by giving them places to stay. They got in the car and went across state lines to find a traditional Mass. And don't forget the dear people went to the one indult Mass that of course was held in a church in a dangerous neighborhood at 6 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon. Those people carried on for years like that. 

We have the Internet. It will be much easier for us to do what those people in the 60s, 70s and and 80s did. This is our moment. DISCREETLY, let your priest and only your priest know that you will have his back if he is willing to offer the Mass. Yes, I mean offer him a room in your home, convert the shed, donate the RV, whatever it takes to keep him fed, healthy and with a roof over his head.  Start looking for venues now and those of you who have been financially blessed, get ready to offer your homes or a big tent on your property for Mass.  

Be calm.  Don't grovel to your bishop. Today I  even heard one good priest ask that his people NOT contact the bishop.  Don't rage at the pastor of your parish. Stop giving to the Bishop's Lenten Appeal and if you are still throwing a dollar in the basket when the Peter's Pence all I can do is ask you why.

 Don't let Francis drive you out of the Church. Today so many people are talking themselves into shuffling off to the Orthodox. In the 60s many people stopped going to Mass. Others decided  that since the Novus Ordo and the high church Protestant service was so similar they might as well go  to the Episcopalians. Others drifted to the Evangelicals or were harvested by the New Age occult groups. Many people stayed but only for Mass and checked out of any church activities. A huge number remained nominally Catholic but stopped going except for Easter, Ash Wednesday and Christmas. 

This is our moment. Many of us have had it easy. We were able to go to a  nearby diocesan Mass and not just at 6 AM in the crypt chapel and did so for years. Depending on your age and where you live,  you may have never known anything but that or FSSP. That kindly time is over for now. If we cannot have the TLM in the church building then let's follow the example of our betters. It's time to get going. 

Hey Tom Fool! Don't Martyr Your Priest!

If, in the next few days you feel the urge to report what your priest has said about Traditionis Custodes you should probably resist it  for your priest's sake. Two years ago a well meaning person wrote an article about a local parish that was glowing and enthusiastic. It was also inadvertently insulting to the previous pastor who had been loved and respected by the long-time parishioners, including Rocky and myself. As soon as I read it I thought it was a bull in a china shop moment.  People murmured and the then pastor was given a headache while soothing the offended people. 

More people know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows. Please don't name your priest or your parish and don't make it easy for people to guess who you're talking about. Every bishop in charge of a diocese has a list of priests whom he considers to be problems. Don't get your priest on that list. Martyrdom must be chosen. You may not push someone else into the lion's den. So be discreet. 

And so it begins

 

I went to Mass at the Cathedral because Rocky's work schedule has changed and our parish Mass times wouldn't give him enough time to get home and change clothes and have us be there on time.  I just read on the Twitter feed of a fellow parishioner that the new pastor at my parish announced that the TLM will no longer be inside the church or on church grounds. What that will entail I do not know. Apparently there is no plan as yet for where the Mass will be allowed to be held. Fr. was given the order by Bishop  Burbidge. 

The Arlington diocese was very blessed. If you wanted to go the traditional Mass you could at more than one parish and if your work schedule couldn't be adjusted to make it on Sunday then there were multiple low Masses during the week.  I once wrote years ago that as happy as I was for the growth of the TLM in the diocese I was not going let myself get comfortable or casual about it. I thought that we would lose it as soon as Pope Benedict died.  I thought I was prepared for this day but I still cried. 


UPDATE: Apparently the blowback was so huge that the TLM has been saved for now. 

Sacred Heart

 

Well, Francis did what many people both good and bad expected him to....

 Perhaps the colon surgery and the   not text book recovery pushed Francis into acting sooner than he'd intended but the deed is done. What does  it mean for the folks in the pews? Well, don't be surprised if your bishop kicks out the FSSP or ICKSP, if you have them in your diocese and don't be surprised if your bishop tells the diocesan priests who say the traditional Mass that they have to stop.  

In the next few hours there will be posts on Catholic Twitter and blogland to the effect that Francis doesn't really mean it and there's nothing to worry about or we will be told by Catholic Inc. figures that there's no reason to worry because our bishops won't do anything against their traditional flock. I also suspect that there will be at least one "thought leader" who will say that it's our fault for not being stealthy enough and raising the ire of Rome.  I hope nobody falls for it. 

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. 

St. Clement has something to tell you.

 

Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, Save Us!

Precious Blood of Jesus wash over me.
Precious Blood of Jesus wash over me and keep me from evil. Amen