Wait and see

 Lillian Roth was once a stage, film and recording star. Her parents put her to work as a child and didn't concern themselves  with her safety as much as her paychecks. She was molested at the age of 6, while at a modeling job. Miss Roth started drinking in her teens and by the end of her twenties she was considered unemployable and was killing herself with alcoholism.  Finally, she went to Alcohol Anonymous and got sober. Her sponsor was a Catholic man and she converted and married him. Her autobiography, conversion story and the movie made of her life were huge news in both secular and Catholic circles. After 18 years of sobriety, she relapsed and her husband, who was also her manager, left her. Lillian then discovered that he'd stopped by the bank as he was walking out of her life, and emptied their account. 

Her Catholic husband who had been her knight in shinning armor turned out to be a really nasty  toad and from reading old newspaper archives, I get the impression that a some of the public  who were lavish in their enthusiasm for Roth when she converted were disappointed and not all that helpful when she needed help again. Roth did regain her sobriety and she even made a triumphant return to Broadway. She is buried in a Jewish cemetery. I hope she kept the Faith but I haven't found anything that makes it clear that she did or didn't. 

Why do I mention this?  Because the tragic story of Lillian Roth reminded me of current events. Right now a lot of people are excited because two women who made their living from  the sex industry have converted.  

By all means,  be happy for them.  Pray for them but don't treat them like they're God's special gift to the Church.  Give them a chance to show they're genuine and give them time to mature in the Faith.  Considering what both these women did for money I would think that anybody who really cares about them should be advising them to step away from social media and live their new redeemed lives in private. People are watching them closely in an effort to prove that they are fake. If they are sincere, surely all this slobbering fandom on one hand  and hostility from others is too much pressure to be under.  When real life gives them a rough patch or they meet a Catholic who lets them down, they might weaken in their conviction. Remember the parable of the Sower and pray that these women aren't seeds in shallow soil. Let's wait and see.

Hey fellow Catholic...before you buy that distant property, read this

This is going to irritate some people but I don't think the Catholic Back to the Land movement is the best or only answer for the American Catholic future. You may have a hazy fantasy about running off to an area near a chapel and priest or monks and then homesteading off grid, but is that realistic?  

Have you ever killed a chicken? My grandmother could wring a chicken's neck with seemingly no effort. My mother never got the knack of it and preferred to use a hatchet and I can't do it all. I could learn the skill, of course but I'll be starving  by the time I perfect butchering and then getting the bird on table. 

Can you shoot a shot gun? You're going to have do that at some point.  Do you know how to milk a cow or care for one? Do you understand that goats and sheep are cute but need a lot of attention? Have you any idea how to butcher a steer, a hog or deer?  Do you know what could  happen if the well goes bad?  

My grandparents weren't dancing and singing in the fields; they were working hard every day but Sunday and even then, the cow, the mule and the other animals needed to be tended to before they left for church. Do you have the stamina for that? Country boys are strong and you better be too or you won't make it. 

 I've learned many things from YouTube videos but if you want to succeed at homesteading you are going to need a wise and loyal someone in real life and nearby to help you. That may be a problem. 

Your new neighbors may not like Catholics. Many Protestants don't. The neighbors may have already had insulting encounters with city folks. They may resent you because you and people like you are buying up property and making things more expensive for the locals. You might find yourself a pariah before you even meet your closest neighbor. If you inadvertently messed up in your social interactions, being out there alone with hostile neighbors may be very bad for you.

Someone may be muttering right now, "But Dymphna, we have to get out of the city, and we need to do it NOW." I understand but don't run off half cocked with no plan.  You might be better served by moving to a small city or town or finding a largely Catholic planned community. I know everyone mocked Ave Maria when it was built in Florida but that, or a situation like it, might be a far more realistic option for you than homesteading. 

I have read comments from people who think cordial relations with their neighbors don't matter. They aren't looking for a community and don't care about the impression they're making on  the neighbors. All they want is a quiet place to hold up and make a stand if there is a major societal upheaval in the future. Lone wolves rarely make it. In real life they end up scavenging until they can join or create a pack of their own. You are going to  need the good will of the locals and I'm not seeing a whole lot of Catholic homesteading dreamers talking about that. 

Random thoughts on Eclipse day

•  Enjoy the eclipse with eye protection of course. When my mother saw her first one she was a small child and was terrified.  When I  saw one I was an adult and was standing on the roof at my employer's eclipse happy hour gathering. Obviously the world didn't end either time.  To those Catholics  who lean Protestant and are expecting the Rapture, sorry, you aren't getting out of here that easily. Go read your bible and then read St. Francis De Sales on the topic of anxiety. 
  
  
  
  
• There's been chatter that Michael Voris is trying to make a come back. I hate to say it but there's probably quite a few individuals out there who are  willing to give him one more chance and write him a check. 
  
  
  
  
• I don't normally read anything from the National Catholic Register and stuff like this is why. It's not just huge scandals that alienate young men from the Church it's the everyday nice and sentimental and absolutely revolting mush. 
  
  
  
  
• I've said it before but I really think that 19 years after the death of Pope John Paul II,  the Divine Mercy devotion is in decline. In recent years in my parish, the first Sunday after Easter was either celebrated with the painting being displayed but without any mention of DM or like this year, the painting was displayed and the lector announced that it was DM Sunday and that was it. We have not been asked to pray the chaplet during or after Mass in several years and while the lines were Confession were long that could have been because the line is always long around the first of the month. To my knowledge we don't have any Polish parishes or Marian Congregation parishes in the Arlington diocese but other than those I didn't get the impression that it was a big deal this year. 

• Does anyone remember how weird it was when Catholic "influencers" began Tweeting that they weren't going to see Oppenheimer before it even came out because of the sex scenes. Nobody asked them publicly about the movie. They weren't Catholic movie critics; they just made their righteous statements out of thin air  and when the movie hit the theaters the Tweets came to a dead stop. Did the first few guys get paid to drive some Twitter traffic towards the movie while the latter ones just jumped on to get attention? It wouldn't be the first odd publicity campaign and we know that Hollywood uses bots and pays people to make provocative Tweets and posts on Facebook about upcoming films. I found it interesting that these men got their Oppenheimer feelings--that nobody asked them for--- out in public but lost interest in movies after that. 

• In your charity please pray for my aunt. She's my late father's youngest and only surviving sister. She was in a terrible, freak car accident and was both run over and dragged in her own yard. 

Happy Easter !Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

 

Holy Saturday : a playlist

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

Have a Blessed Triduum

•  Rocky and I went to our old parish for Holy Thursday and then went to visit churches to pray at their Altars of Repose. Queen of Apostles in Alexandria had the most beautiful one and I was very surprised to see that the worst one was at the Cathedral of St. Thomas Moore. We saw great tenderness, beauty  and decorative talent in little parishes so the lack of effort at the cathedral was disappointing. 
  
  
  
  
  
• On Good Friday we went to West Virginia. The Solemn  Liturgy. It was incredible.  On the way home we drove past St. Anthony of Padua church in Falls Church just as the Stations of the  Cross were getting started. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Palm Sunday pre-1955, 1962 and Novus Ordo

I've been trying to understand the differences in the pre 1955 Holy Week liturgies and the 1962 version. I've listened to lectures and read a few explanations but seeing it was the key for me. 

I found a pre-1955 Palm Sunday Mass and watched then compared it to a 1962 rubric Palm Sunday Mass and then the Novus Ordo. 

I was watching a video on traditional texts to study for Holy Week and one of the resources was Restore the 54.  It does a good job spelling out the changes that happened during the Pius XIII pontificate to the Holy Week liturgies. 

Another fake, fake, fake devotion.

 

I encountered a very nice person who was big into the Divine Will fake devotion. He's educated and has written books on the Faith but I don't care. Whatever Luisa Piccaretta was talking to was not Our Lord or Our Lady. This disturbed woman's cause for beatification has been  suspended and God willing won't go any further.  WARNING  -- In this video refuting the devotion, Fr. Mawdsley quotes directly from Luisa's books and her words are so revolting it's physically painful to listen to but it is necessary to show that Luisa was either insane or speaking to a demon. 

 How on earth this filthy business ever caught on with anybody is astonishing.  As Fr. said, "This is wrong, this is so wrong and it doesn't bear commenting on with so much that is suspicious and off and even sickening about this". 

If anybody tries to promote this to you, be extremely wary. 

 

Random thoughts on Monday afternoon.

•  I saw a video of a basketball game where a boy who says he is a girl injured a female player on the opposing team. Folks this is going to go until you remove your daughters from the playing fields. I keep hearing people say, "But she'll lose  her scholarship," and I don't get it. Is any college worth so much to you that you let your daughter's nakedness be exposed the eye of a leering and possibly dangerous individual in the locker room and shower?
  
  Is any college scholarship worth your girl getting knocked out, stomped, damaged internally, or her head cracked in during a sporting competition she had no chance to win?
  
   Don't you love your daughter? Does her dignity mean nothing to you?  In 1968, two black Olympians risked their medals and athletic careers for their cause. They faced screaming event attendees, were kicked out the Olympic village and they received death threats. 
  
  They won. Both went on to the NFL and are considered Civil Rights era heroes today. The adult athletes and the parents of the minors have to leave the mad house and yes, sacrifices will have to be made if you are serious. It's not going to change by  pleading. 

•  A priest posted a photo of his 90 year old mother and asked for prayers because she passed away. One person complained that the mother was wearing pants and chastised the loving son for showing an immodest photo. My brothers, if you experience temptation looking at a 90 year old woman I suggest that you step away from the Internet, possibly forever for any reason other than work, and get yourself to the nearest priest  for spiritual guidance because ....something aint right.  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ave Maria
  
  
  
  

Our Lady of the Rosary, Pray for Us

 

Parce Domine

 

Last night, Rocky and I tried to go the 6PM Ash Wednesday Mass after work but it was packed. We sat in the parking lot and went to the 7PM Mass instead. Both priests looked tired but happy. I hope everyone has a holy Lent. 

“Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”

Poor Pope Benedict. Eleven years after his resignation and I think that his fleeing for whatever the true reason, will be the only thing the sheep and the world will remember him for. 

Showing up at church is not enough

 Something happened at Mass a few years ago that still disturbs me. A family came in late and pushed past an older lady. She got up and moved to another pew. The oldest boy whispered something to the father. The man snapped that the woman was just crazy.  He said it  loud enough that I, sitting a few pews back, heard him. I think the woman must have heard him too. I never saw her again. 

This woman was a parishioner of many years. She was always reserved but friendly to me and struck me as being a very nervous and sensitive soul. I hope she just started going to Mass at a different time or at a different parish. 

Guys, you may have a beard like Moses, wear a Savile Row suit and have a family size to rival the Patriarch Jacob's and you may lead your family to church every Sunday but if you act like a jerk when you get there what lesson are you teaching them?  

This is bad

 

This man, on a trip to his home in Utah, noticed  illegal immigrants in the airport with NGO papers indicating  that they were clients of Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona. As I have said before, there is going to be a backlash over this type of thing. When people start taking even their verbal anger out on Catholics I guarantee that our separated brethren and pagan groups wont raise a peep in our defense or show a shred of fellowship. These NGOs need to have the word Catholic removed from their names. 

As I’m on my way home to SLC, UT
I noticed 6 illegal migrants are also boarding the same @AmericanAir flight.

Looks like I’ve got some new neighbors! https://t.co/J3w2w9Nrz2

— Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) January 15, 2024

 

Long break and other random thoughts

•  Well, I took a long Christmas break and it was good. I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas and Epiphany season. 2024 is going to be a doozy.
  
  
  
  
• I saw that Gonzalo Lira is dead. He was not a good man. He should have left Ukraine as soon as the war drums started beating. He was not a wise man in many ways but he's dead and it didn't have to be that way. Some people are angry that he didn't get the same attention that Britney Griner got but that's not saying much. Griner is back in the States but she doesn't appear to be her old self on the basketball court and probably isn't the same in private as she was before she was arrested in Russia. In many parts of the world getting arrested can lead to you kneeling in an unlit cell in the sub-basement of a building whose very name makes the local folks nervous. Even in places like Japan or Sweden you are not going to have a good time.
  
  In Lira's case,  being taken into custody was deadly. To all the Americans who think that running off to Eastern Europe, Asia or South America is the way to go, know this: no matter how long you live there or how long you've been married to a native woman --its' usually men who talk about doing this--- you will always be that American and the locals will come for you if things go sideways. If other friendly locals don't come to your defense, what are you and your family going to do but end up as a cautionary tale?
  
  
  
  
• Do you have a diocesan priest who is clearly a man and a holy one at that? Stop showing his photo or reporting  his comments on social media without his permission. You're not helping especially if his bishop already hates him. I'm sorry it's come this but here we are.
  
  
  
  
  
•  Breakfast At Tiffany's was about a prostitute. Medjugorje is a scam, at best. C.S. Lewis was not Catholic and showed terrible judgement in his personal life. Everyone involved in the film, Pretty Baby should have been publicly whipped. You don't have to go to college to be a good Catholic.                                                                                                                                                                       
  
  
  
• There was a guy who posted regularly in the Catholic Twitter circle who started out interesting but completely lost it. He stopped writing about the Faith and just kept posting shirtless photos of himself. It got weirder. Somebody must have started criticizing him for it because he shut down his account abruptly. I'm NOT talking about Voris. Apparently its common for men who are trying to get into body building level shape to send photo proof of their progress to their Accountability buddies, but dude, keep that private. Just as attention seeking Catholic women posting their photos every single day are off-putting, so too, are the men who do this.     
  
  
  
  
• In December I saw a number of Professional Catholics post lovely photos of their very nice homes and they wished their followers who donate and make their lifestyle possible, a happy Christmas. I've seen it reported by many sources that Church Militant's donors were mostly middle-aged to elderly women. I hope that's not true but more than that, I hope that in light of what is coming out about CM many people are waking up and wising up about who they are donating to. 

Downfall

 Michael Voris is gone.  Christine Niles says she submitted her resignation on November 10th.  I'm not dancing a jig but it is for the best that this is so.  Watching the whole Church Militant show play out over the years has been like watching a case of folie a deux syndrome and it became disturbing on primal level. Have you ever seen something so ugly that your skin tingled and your stomach tightened? That's the effect Voris's reportage had on me.

I've seen comments on Twitter condemning  anyone who is gloating that  the board of Church Militant forced him to resign. but while there were a few people who were delighted and expressed themselves in really crass ways, the majority of Catholic media has either been silent or been kind.  

To those who say "Oh, this is a tragedy. Voris  and Church Militant have done such good and been so influential for Catholicism,"I suggest that you read Randy Engel's 2017, article, "All The Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," and then go to Mass this Sunday and afterward mention CM and Voris to your friends. Most will tell you they never watched or read his Tweets and the rest will ask, "Who?" The majority of Catholics around the world have no idea who Michael Voris is or who Taylor Marshall, Patrick Coffin, Michael Lofton or Kennedy Hall are.  

 Pray for Voris  that he gets his spiritual life in order but I think we can all do without CM or Voris's type of journalism. Six months or so, if he shows up again on the media stage please don't give him money. Don't look to professional media Catholics to be your spiritual guides. 

Tertullian, St. Ignatius, a pop song and one lone bishop

St. Ignatius of Antioch always leaves me awestruck.  He was a disciple of St. John, the Evangelist, and was the third bishop of Antioch. In his old age during the reign of Emperor Trajan the holy bishop was taken prisoner in Antioch and carried off to Rome. He was going to be eaten alive by lions for the amusement of the Flavian Amphitheater going public. Most people today facing such an end  would have been reduced to screaming hysteria, but Ignatius managed to write six letters to his fellow Christians encouraging them and letting them know that he was ready to lay down his life for Jesus. Read those letters and you will be amazed and inspired. 

A bishop cannot be a coward. A bishop, if he is worthy of his cassock should be ready to suffer and die for the love of Our Lord and in defense of his flock.  Non Veni Pacem has posted parts of a letter to Bishop Strickland  from an unnamed friend of the bishop's that quotes Tertullian and exhorts Bishop Strickland to remember and behave like St. Ignatius. The bishop  mentions the letter in a speech. Non Veni Pacem links to the whole thing.  It is a beautiful letter and the speech is one that will stick with me. When I read it, I remembered the first time I heard the song, How This Ends. That song is one of my all time favorites and was a calming factor during a very hard time. 

How It Ends Lyrics

Hold your grandmother's Bible to your breast

Gonna put it to the test

You wanted it to be blessed

And in your heart

You know it to be true

You know what you got to do

They all depend on you

And you already know

Yeah, you already know how this will end

There is no escape from the slave catcher's songs

For all of the loved ones gone

Forever's  not so long

And in your soul

They poked a million holes

But you never let them show

Come on, it's time to go

And you already know

Yeah, you already know how this will end

Now you've seen His face

And you know there's a place in the sun

For all that you've done

For you and your children

No longer shall you need

You always wanted to believe

Just ask and you'll receive

Beyond your wildest dreams

And you already know

Yeah, you already know how this will end

I think Bishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas has a pretty good idea  how his current situation ends. No, he will not be fed to lions but the rest of his life is going to be quite different than what he may have expected when he first went to the seminary. St. Ignatius and St. John Fisher, please pray for your brother. 

Random thoughts on a warm Sunday morning.

•  A lot of people in DC and London are shocked and frightened by the huge anti-Israel marches. I'm mystified as to why. Did these people think that a Muslim person whether a refugee, naturalized citizen or second or third generation born citizen would go "Yay Israel,"!, on command? Have you read their book? It clearly states what they believe. 
  
   A lot of middle class people live in an intellectual  and social bubble. They are so happy that a new restaurant from --- country has opened up or they fondly remember going to college with a person from --- country and assume foolishly, that everyone from --- is just like their old college buddy. Worse, they see minorities of all spectrums as mere symbols for them to patronize and virtue signal about.  Northern Virginia and the whole DVM has a huge population of people from countries who don't like Israel. Of course, they are expressing themselves. Those of you who work for Catholic Charities migrant services or other NGOs especially have no excuse for being surprised.
  
  
  

• I don't like professional Catholics. The man or woman who makes their living from the Faith will do and say whatever is necessary to keep the mortgage paid. Instead of going to the endless conferences these people keep putting on and fattening their wallets; why not read a a book written by a saint? Why not go to Adoration or on personal pilgrimage? 
  
  
  
• I enjoyed the You Tube videos of a really interesting woman who had similar tastes in clothes, home décor,  history, and art to mine but out of no where she dropped a bomb. She's a practicing  "good" witch. Nope. I'm out. I blocked her channel and was quite disappointed. The typical occultist is not just  that oddly smelling girl whom nobody liked back in school.  It's gone mainstream and  you'd be shocked to see how many apparently normal people you know are involved. 
  
  

• We're going to South Carolina this month to clean all the family graves and order any necessary repairs. I'll be bringing Klean Logik Headstone Cleaner and D/2 Biological Solution  with me but I'll buy the brushes and water buckets at Walmart when I get there. Mama will supervise while I clean and Rocky and Uncle Junior can be the water brigade.  It's been too long since I was last saw my father's grave and I'm really looking forward to saying a rosary there. 
  
  
  
  
• In your charity, could  you say a prayer for a particular priest? When I looked up at him during the processional I was shocked. He looked terribly sick and unsteady all through Mass and I wanted to grab him and check his pulse. 

A Ghostly Tale for All Hallows Eve

Years ago when I was still in high school I read a collection of ghost stories called "Haunted Heartland." Most of them weren't a bit scary and were presented in  the dry  businesslike fashion of a folklorist who is merely collecting materials for a dissertation, but one tale stuck with me. It was the story of Fr. Louis Lesches, a priest assigned to St. Mary's College in Minnesota, who tried to kill his superior, Bishop Patrick Hefron. The bishop was saying Mass in the seminary chapel one morning when he turned around and saw Fr. Lesches standing behind him. To the bishop's surprise, the priest was wearing a Prince Albert suit instead of his cassock or clericals. To add to this surprise the bishop quickly realized that  the priest was packing heat. Fr. Lesches fired a gun three times, hitting the bishop twice.

At that time Fr. Lesches was already the number one problem child of the diocese. Although he was said to be brilliant and had done well in the academic part of his seminary studies, he was also overly emotional, insubordinate, and felt that the bishop was persecuting him. He'd failed at all of his parish assignments and now Bishop Hefron had recalled him to St. Mary's to keep a close eye on him. 

 Bishop Heffron's vestments, orneriness, and his great physical shape probably saved his life.  Instead of dropping dead or swooning he yelled at his now panicked attacker and chased him out of the chapel. Fr. Lesches was captured and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

 Students have been claiming to see the ghost of Fr. Lesches on campus for decades. It's a spooky tale but I hope everyone who hears or reads it will stop and say a prayer for this poor, strange, unstable man who never should've been ordained but is a priest forever and one who probably really needs our help now. 

What the heck is WRONG with people?

 When 26 year old Baltimore CEO Pava LePere was found  partially clad, strangled and bludgeoned to death in her own apartment building I noticed that MOST of the comments in both secular news and among men on Catholic Twitter, mocked the victim and expressed satisfaction that she was dead.

 Pava supported Black Lives Matter. The irony of her murder by a man whom she would have presumably championed and whom she naively let into her controlled access building  was enough for an explosion of schadenfreude. One Catholic man in particular seemed triumphant and  kept posting on Twitter, "She let him in." The last time I checked, he'd made this statement several times.

Look, I get that men are frustrated. There are many silly young women who flit from one fad to another with no deep thought about their own safety or much of anything else but Pava was murdered. How can you call yourself a Catholic man and revel in her death?  She obviously didn't grow up in a neighborhood like the one I did and unlike mine,  her parents may have never taught her you don't open to the door to anyone you don't know because it's better to be seen as rude than dead. At 26, she was old enough to be my daughter and I look at her photo with sadness. Thank God, the killer, who so far, has attacked three women has been caught.