random thoughts on a Sunday night

• So  how was your Divine Mercy Mass?  Father preached at some considerable length about the very great sufferings of Pope John Paul II and Sr. Faustina  but  he also mentioned  the Gospel reading. Poor Rocky was so tired from work that he dozed off a few times. I only nudged him awake because if he'd started snoring everybody would have heard it. The Divine Mercy image was not brought out this year, nor  was the chaplet prayed before or during Mass. Compared to  Divine Mercy masses of yesteryear this was pretty toned down. I think the devotion is quietly fading in the United States. 
  
  
  
•  My brother-in-law loves Disney so much that he used to go once or twice a year. To each his own... and it was his money to do as he pleased and none of my business  but I couldn't fathom it. I still can't. The You Tube videos of squealing adults gong to Disney as if it's a pilgrimage site used to be strike me as weird but harmless now they seem decidedly unhealthy. 
  
  
  
• I have no desire to watch "The Chosen".  The trailers and still photos just had a strong Protestant/Mormon vibe to me and as it turns out it's blasphemous.  It also makes the Lord a sweet, lovable goofball. I despise that as much as I loathe the girly pink-cheeked and doe eyed images of Our Lord. 
  
  
  
• I've noticed something rather interesting. When Rocky and I drive through the wealthy parts of Northern Virginia we see Ukrainian flags in front of the mansions. There are a few in the middle class neighborhoods and none to be seen the working class or poor neighborhoods. 
  
  
  
• St. John the Evangelist was special among the Apostles. Perhaps it was due to his youth and innocence. He was the one out of all the Apostles who was entrusted with protecting Our Lady after the Crucifixion. When he had his vision of Our Lord on the isle of Patmos, he, a very old man did not greet Jesus familiarly. He threw himself to the ground and prostrated himself before God. I try to think about that when I pass by the Blessed Sacrament or when faced with a priest or deacon who wants to give me Communion in the hand.

Rejoice

 

Happy Easter

 

Holy Saturday

 

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled. from an ancient Holy Saturday Homily

O KING OF THE FRIDAY

 

O KING OF THE FRIDAY

O King of the Friday

Whose limbs were stretched on the Cross,

O Lord who did suffer The bruises, the wounds, the loss,

We stretch ourselves

Beneath the shield of thy might,

Some fruit from the tree of thy passion

Fall on us this night!

He Has Trodden the Winepress Alone

Isaiah 63:1

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength. I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save. Why then, is thy apparel red, and they garments like theirs that tread in the winepress?

 

Palm Sunday

 

Uncle Luke and the Angel

 If someone claims that Our Lord, Our Lady, saints or angels are stopping by to chat with them regularly, you should avoid them. If you think that the King of Kings is popping into your kitchen every day and saying you're  the most wonderful person in the world and that He is more united with you than any other creature you need to run to your priest and possibly a physician. That may very well be a demon or a brain tumor talking.

Chasing after unapproved apparitions is bad news but that doesn't mean that God doesn't step in when we need Him. I suspect that most true apparitions are not intended for the world to know about and are a one time event for most people who are so visited. Here's a family story about a relative who needed a miracle and may have gotten one.

My Great Uncle Luke was a wonderful person but he was an alcoholic. My mother isn't sure if his drinking started when he was a teenager or if it's something that began after he came home from the Korean War. Whenever it started it was very bad and was destroying him. His sisters, Grandma and Great Aunt Violet decided that something had to be done. Grandma befriended Luke's young wife and his young children spent pretty much every day at her home. Aunt Vi came home and spent her vacation talking to Luke's supervisor at work, his banker, and a lawyer. She took control of his money, made sure his bills were paid, bought clothes for his children and saved the home that Luke's grandchildren live in today. 

Luke's drinking finally landed him in the hospital. While he was there he had an experience that changed his life forever. He later told my grandmother and no-one else that an angel walked into his room. What the angel looked like or said, he did not tell her but from that night on he didn't need to drink anymore. He died when I was five and he was known as a wise and well beloved member of the family and community. He was also considered to be one of the most charitable men in the town. So many people came to his funeral that they had stand in the back and overflowed into the churchyard. It was such a spectacular turnaround that anyone who hadn't known him when he was a young man wouldn't have believed that he ever had an alcohol problem. God acts in our lives. 

Ask Your Husband--- and other random thoughts

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•  Although I do NOT want to give my money to either of  the Gordon brothers I have become increasingly curious about Stephanie Gordon's book, Ask Your Husband, to see what the fuss (from people I respect and a few that I don't), is all about. I'm too late. Tan publishing has pulled the book due to a plagiarism accusation from a surprising source and it's not available for immediate purchase on Amazon. The next Gordon family reunion is going to be bit strained, I'm guessing. If I can find a used copy I may still try to get it. The sad thing is; a good, non-stuffy, highly readable  book on Christian feminism and why it's evil is needed. Hopefully one day, we'll get one. 
  
  
  
  
• If I hear that "But the rank and file are still decent men and women and on our side," idiotic line one more time.....
  
  
  
  
  
• Y'all know that Oscar's slap was fake as pro wrassling, right? 
  
  
  
  
• Hey Maryland.   Joe at the Washington DC Catholic blog has posted a Tweet a Maryland legislature bill that should disturb you. Have your bishops or your parish priest said anything about this? You can also read about this on the Restore DC Catholicism blog. 
  
  
  
  

Another squishy consecration

 God knocked Saul off his high horse and adjusted Balaam's attitude so anything is possible. With that in mind,  I had planned to wait until Francis did his version of consecrating Russia before writing anything but the text of the consecration has been released and it's going to be another half assed one like all the others before it. 

As The Stomach Turns----The 2022 Appeal Has Officially Begun

When we arrived for Mass we saw that the children's choir was going to be singing and the cantor was better dressed than usual. When the kids sing at anything other than the Family Mass, it's a sign that something is up. 

This time it was because of the bishop's Lenten appeal. The financial take was way down for the last two years, the solicitation has been more aggressive than I've seen in my entire life. I've been getting emails every week reminding me to contribute and we have speakers from different groups come to Mass to talk about the Appeal. Fr. also spoke about Catholic Charities' immigration resettlement services and mentioned the 800 Afghan families that my diocese has taken in. Fr. assured us that all 800 worked for the US military in some capacity. 

After the Appeal talk, Father gave us a rousing pro-Ukraine speech and told us about the 13 soldiers on Snake Island who were all massacred by Russian forces. The same 13 soldiers who reports now say, surrendered and are all alive. Fr. also made a joke about his fat doctor. So that was it, propaganda and fat jokes. By the time Fr. was done I had an upset stomach. 

Umm, Fr. Keehan? Do You Know What Rock & Roll Actually Refers To?

 

One thing that we need to face is that the Novus Ordo is essentially whatever the bishop allows. A priest can follow the  GIRM  or he may not. You can have a Mass that is as well done and reverent as a Novus Ordo can be done or you have absolute buffoonery. It's valid. It's in communion, the priest is in good standing  and unless the bishop has a problem with it all your letters of complaint will be sent to the delete folder. 

Fr. Terrence M. Keehan, the pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Inverness, Illinois recently had a televised Mass where for the final blessing he held up a guitar and prayed, "Loving God, rock with us as we roll with you. Affirm us, so that we may affirm others. Sing your song in us, that we may sing it with others,” and then he used the guitar like a monstrance and blessed everyone.

There has been a lot of commentary about this.   I saw the photo and watched the video clip and felt like my cheeks tingle. That unusually happens when I'm shocked. I don't know how old Fr. Keehan is but he looks like he ought to be old enough to know that  the phrase "rock and roll" is  euphemism for sexual intercourse and has been at least since the 1930s. For a very small example, "Roll With Me, Henry", the original "Shake, Rattle and Roll", "Rock With U" and "Rock Me, Daddy," are not about dancing. Fr. Keehan may not have a musical, or anthropological background but come on, we all know on some level that the heart of Rock and Roll is shamanistic. It appeals to the lower passions. I think Fr. either meant well, although the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, or he was trying to cute but he did something appalling.  Would you simulate intercourse, howl, moan or jump around ecstatically before the Cross on Mt. Calvary? No, of course not so why is poor Father asking God Almighty to....I can't write it. 

 

You need to read this

 Non Veni Pacem  has just posted something chilling. 

random thoughts on a Wednesday

 

• I am not a Taylor Marshall fan but I must say that the idea of him or any adult  debating Michael Voris seems ridiculous. 
  
  
  
  
  
• A lot of people seem to want war with Russia over Ukraine. I wish these people would get on a plane with their sons, grandsons and nephews and leave the rest of the country out of it. 
  
  
  
  
• It started before the Obama years but became insane in his era, but when will people realize that this cult of personality; this worship of the president is unhealthy? I've seen people react to others with a different political view point as if they've committed blasphemy. Because they worship their guy or gal, anyone who doesn't' is an enemy, an apostate and an evildoer. This is sick, pathetic and dangerous. I've seen this on the Left AND the Right.  The president is suppose to be the chief executive, not your god emperor. 

• A lot of people need to hear what Father is saying. He doesn't mention it and probably didn't have time to get into it in a homily  but one terrible case of the public being lied to was the Mississippi Appendectomy. It wasn't an appendectomy and it wasn't just Mississippi. It happened all over the South with the approval, financial support and propaganda from government officials, Northeastern philanthropists and organizations like Planned Parenthood. Women, who were considered stupid, incorrigible, or mentally sub-normal or suffering from depression went in a surgery they were told was needed and were actually sterilized. Eugenics was practiced in the USA long before WWII and in a less heavy handed public way, it still is. 
  
  
  
  

• Col. Allen West is running for governor of Texas. He says he'll revoke the
  
  charity license of Catholic Charities if he wins. It needs to happen.

Our Lady seat of Wisdom, pray for us

 

Random thoughts on a cold Monday morning

•   I refuse to give a dime to Catholic Charities. The organization takes government money to do works that do not benefit our  fellow citizens. People see the vans and planes full of illegal immigrants arriving in their little towns and they see the Catholic Charities logo on the volunteers escorting them and of course they're coming to the conclusion that the Catholics aren't on their side. This won't end well. 
  
  
  
• Why is everyone so snotty towards old women? Why is "This is not your mother's or grandmother's …. a perennial advertising catch line? Why do so many Catholics act like the elderly don't have souls to save? I know a parish needs young families but heaping contempt on the elderly who survived the 70s and 80 and still come to Mass doesn't build up families. It just sets a bad example for your children who will one day turn a jaundiced eye towards you. 
  
  
  
  
• When I saw the photo of the Australian policeman walking up and down the aisle of a church during Mass and demanding to see people's vaccination status I immediately was reminded of a movie that I saw as a child. I think it was filmed the end of the '30s or the  1940s about English pilots whose plane is shot down  in what I think was the Netherlands. The pilots are saved by a gallant local family and arrangements are made to get them safely out.
  
  On the day of their escape the pilots, dressed as locals go to Mass with the family and will discreetly blend in with the Sunday crowds filling the square and roads to the rendezvous point afterwards. An SS officer and soldiers come in. The armed soldiers stand  at the back of the church but the officer walks up and down the aisle intimidating people. The camera shows the priest, and a few of the appalled parishioners. The pilots sitting with the family are  nervous and although they don't appear to be Catholic, the close ups of their faces show that they are disgusted at this strutting SS officer and the desecration. 

• People keep saying that Francis is dying of colon or pancreatic cancer but I don't buy it. My grandmother died of colon cancer. I don't think she weighed as much as 100 pounds at the end and Francis appears to weigh quite bit more than that. I've never seen a fat colon cancer end-stage patient.
  
  As for pancreatic cancer, my father-in-law, Big Daddy had it and when I saw him after his Whipple surgery I found that I had to struggle  to maintain my composure. He started out as a hugely fat man and was still large at the time of his death but he was visibly sick  and shockingly half the size he had been a few months earlier. He looked like the cancer was gobbling the fat right off him.
  
   Both my grandmother and my father-in-law were no longer interested in the world towards the end. Big Daddy had enormous charisma and normally commanded attention wherever he went.  On the last day I saw him alive, that spark was gone. He just didn't have the will or strength to dominate anymore. When you are seriously ill life gets very basic.  Francis is still active and obviously cares very much about worldly affairs. 
  
  He may have a serious, chronic condition.  At his age, that's highly probable but I don't think he's actively dying. Even if he were to die tonight it would not matter. Unless there is a miracle the next man to be elected pope will be no better than him. Look at the crop of cardinals we have. The good ones are weak and timid and the bad ones are riding high. 
  
  I don't want to come off as Negative Nelly but there is deep to the bone infection in the Vatican and is not just about Francis. He is the visible crown of the cyst, but there is so much more beneath the surface. 

Don't put your trust in celebrities

 Milo Yiannopoulos  has claimed in the past that he's been at some pretty nasty parties where he noticed older men with "dates" who looked quite young. He also said that he won't name any of the supposedly famous men he saw at those parties because it would be indiscreet. Some people are shocked by this. I am not. If Milo is telling the truth his reaction seems to be the standard one.

A few months ago I was listening to a podcast where one member of the discussion panel mentioned that he had been to a Hollywood party and would decline any further invitations from his host because although he was no prude himself what he saw at the party left him disgusted and horrified. The other people on the panel reacted with gasps, looking away from the camera, and nervous laughs. One person "jokingly" warned him that it was dangerous to talk about that. The man told them not to worry and indicated that he'd never go into detail about what he saw beyond what he'd already said. Everyone looked relieved and the subject was changed. This was all in few minutes. 

The late romance novel author-priest, Father Andrew Greeley alleged that there was a homosexual pederast ring of priests operating in the Chicago area.

"...But even in Chicago, the ring of predators about whom I wrote in the paperback edition of 'Confessions' remains untouched. There is no evidence against them because no one has complained about them and none of their fellow priests have denounced them. Those who have been removed are for the most part lone offenders who lacked the skill to cover their tracks. The ring is much more clever. Perhaps they always will be. But should they slip, should they get caught, the previous scandals will seem trivial...."

Fr. Greeley never claimed to have gone to the cops but he did state publicly that if these ring members were to cause any harm to him personally, arrangements had been made for their names to be released to the press. Fr. Greeley died years later  and guess what? The ring members, if they exist, must have gotten the message and didn't bother him because that accusation died with him.

Apparently, among our elites and people who have contact with them it is common knowledge that certain unnatural acts and crimes against God and nature happen all the time at certain gatherings. 

Be careful which celebrity who you turn into a hero or heroine. Odds are that they're either a coward or in their mind simply prudent, who will never go to the police or name names in public over what they've seen or they were the stars of the parties. I'll put it another way: In order for your favorite celebrities to be where they are; they probably saw some stuff and fearfully remain silent or they did some stuff that would make you sick. 

Man of Sorrows

The Orthodoxy attaction

 As I've written before, a lot of people look at  Pope Francis and their  bishops, especially those who got to be bishops because of their McCarrick connections and are horrified.  The horror is compounded when they listen to another wishy washy or blasphemous  homily from Fr. Skippy. These folks, particularly men look at the Orthodox and are awed. Watch the Russian Orthodox Easter or Christmas service on YouTube and you'll see priests who look and sound like men. The churches are gorgeous and lift the mind to meditations on Heaven. They talk about penance, sacrifice, doing hard things like controlling ones own evil passions before presuming to tell the world anything.

Orthodoxy looks pretty good but it's like a make up tutorial. Underneath the paint and powder you have something that has flaws and serious problems on both the secular and sacred levels. Go lurk on any Orthodox discussion site and you'll come away shocked. You think Evangelicals hate Catholics? The Ortho sites are a river of vinegar, urine and bile towards Catholics and the various sects really hate each other. The grass isn't greener on the other side. It's just different grass. 

the Skojec saga isn't over but I think people are starting to realize that something is horribly wrong

 I was  just  looking back at my old posts that mention Steve Skojec. I liked him in the beginning but around 2014, I started noticing that he was changing. He got vicious and seemed to enjoy wallowing in drama. I remember when he attacked Ann Barnhardt's looks and when he later "jokingly" called her insane. That was foul and I don't think anybody in his circle or any professional Catholics publicly called him out on it. Shame on them.  I also remember when he started having tantrums and carrying on claiming to be struggling with his Faith in public.  And then we had the bizarre spectacle of him, a self appointed Catholic influencer who hated praying the Rosary and  didn't even go to Mass. Now he's either apostatized or is flirting with it. 

There are probably many lessons to take from this saga but the one that really captures my attention right now is this: God gave us the Church, the priesthood and the saints. Cling to the Doctors of the Church. Cling to the Catechism. Cling to the sacraments God gave us. Do not make some articulate person with an Internet presence into your Catholic guide.