Should priests blog?

Nope. Not unless the blog doesn't allow comments and is strictly homilies, apologetics, or a collection of the priest's writings like this  or this. 
I've seen priest blogs that were too worldly, waspish to anyone who didn't slobber over them like a big happy dog, and well.... dangerous because they showed bad judgement, and did not show the priesthood in a respectable light. A priest blog should not be like a pop star writing to his fans.

So what to do, when a priest blogger is embarrassing? Treat him like Noah's good sons did when they saw him drunk and naked. Turn your eyes away, don't dwell on the disgrace and never revisit the episode again. There are at least three priestly blogs that I just won't read anymore.

St. John Vianney, pray for us. 

Father Solanus Casey, pray for us.

Fr. Walter Ciszek, pray for us. 

Fr. Augustus Tolton, pray for us.

Fr. Miguel Pro, pray for us. 

St. Pio, pray for us. 

Two tributes to St. Joan

She was truthful when lying was the common speech of men; she was honest when honest was become a lost virtue; she was a keeper of promises when the keeping of a promise was expected of no one; ... she was full of pity when a merciless cruelty was the rule; she was steadfast when stability was unknown, and honorable in an age which had forgotten what honor was; she was a rock of convictions in a time when men believed in nothing and scoffed at all things; she was unfailingly true in an age that was false to the core; ... she was of a dauntless courage when hope and courage had perished in the hearts of her nation..." Mark Twain




A cartoonist (can't remember his name) was at a comic convention and someone asked him why he didn't have any female knights in his graphic novels. He answered that this wouldn't be realistic. There was only one lady knight and that was Joan of Arc and she was a miracle from God. This dude was by no means a devout man-- in fact, he was quite profane in his speech, actions and his art but he recognized Joan's greatness.

A magnificent statue of St. Therese

 

This is a fine statue of St. Therese but it's not just pretty. It teaches as well. Her name was Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face and you see both represented in this work as well as Our Lady. You can find this statue at the National Shrine of St. Therese in Illinois.

Before you write that check to a Catholic non profit do some research

Catholic Answers needs  help and has launched an appeal.  I've never cared for them but that's not what this post is about. I hate it when I get e-mails that try to make me feel guilty or campaingns that try to make me feel like I'm a bad Catholic if I don't support a certain Catholic organization or business. Remeber that St. Therese movie from a few years back? Remember how we were all urged to support it? Remember how bad it was?

Every tax-exempt organization, nonexempt charitable trust, and section 527 political organization is required by law to to file an annual  form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service. This form spells out an organization's financials and you should always look for it. To do this you can go to the IRS charitable organization search page. The IRS site is free but clunky and slow. I really like GuideStar.org and tend to go to it first. You have to register but that's free and GuideStar organizes the information so that you can get to the point at a glance. Another site that I've recently started using is FoundationCenter.org It is not as visually appealing as GuideStar but you don't have register and it's just as fast. You can also go to the National Center for Charitable Statistics site. 

Enough about Miley Cyrus already

Psst. While everybody is babbling about one little twit, who is laughing all the way to the bank, our country is getting closer and closer to war with Syria.



St. Ephem the Syrian, doctor of the Church pray for us all.

random thoughts on a sick day

* I know of one priest in my diocese who is being muttered about because the poor man doesn't run the parish  just like the old priest and the ladies are mad at him. He keeps unused rooms of the parish hall locked and instead of coming and going as they pleased the ladies now have to go to the rectory to get a key. Americans ran to the suburbs for various reasons, one of which was to avoid crime. Well, crime happens in the burbs just like it does in the city and there is a possibility that someone could get hurt by a stranger coming in off the street and lurking in  one of those isolated basement rooms. It's also not uncommon for parishioners to steal. About two or three years ago Rocky and I were on vacation and went to Mass at a church which had just been spectacularly ripped off by a longtime trusted and loved by many people, layperson volunteer. It happens. For whatever reason, this priest is being more security conscious it would do the group of mad ladies in his parish well, to calm down.


*I've heard the word "pelagian" thrown around lately and I think most of the people who use it don't know what it really means. It's like the people who scream Nazi or fascist at people they don't like without stopping to think what those words really mean. A dude named Giacomo Casolo started a lay organization called a confraternity to stress the importance of piety and mental prayer. He named the confraternity after one of my favorite saints, St. Pelagia. This was all well and good and was approved of by the bishop and local Jesuits but it got nutty. By 1655, the Pelagians  were divorcing spouses who didn't follow their brand of Catholicism and stopped going to Mass, receiving the sacraments or listening to sermons by non-Pelagians. They believed that all you had to do to be saved was mental prayer. Well, there were complaints and an investigation and the whole thing was rooted up and condemned. 

There is another, much older heresy also called Pelagianism that was fought by St. Augustine and St. Jerome. This garbage was started by a monk who thought that his fellow Romans were too lax, (when the clergy goes bad, it is disastrous), named Pelagius who may have been from what we now call Great Britain. According to the  the not so merry monk thought that humans could get to Heaven by being stoic, exercising free will alone and:

1. Adam died because, death is just part being human. Even if he'd hadn't sinned he still would've died.
   
2. Adam and Eve hurt themselves but not the human race. We sin because Adam gave us a bad example and Christ redeemed us, sort of, by giving a good example.
3. Newborns are just like Adam before his Fall. Which means it's no big deal if you don't get around to Baptizing the baby before he reaches the age of reason.
   
4. We don't die because of Adam and we don't rise again through the resurrection of the new Adam, Christ.
5. The law of Moses is just as good a guide to get to Heaven as the Gospel.
6. Even before Christ came there were sinless men.

This heresy was condemned at the Council of Carthage and pretty much died out around the year, 430 or so but it could be argued that the cult of Positive Thinking and Mormonism have Pelagianist roots. At any rate I haven't met any Catholics who openly espouse what Mr. Casolo or Fr. Pelagius were preaching.  Now at this point somebody is probably saying "Hey Dymph, what about the Pope?" My answer is "I don't know. English is not the Holy Father's first language. I know how his remark was translated but I don't know what he meant or how he really meant it so I'm leaving it alone.


*One day Rocky and I were walking along and we ran into a Dominican nun. She was the first sister shown in this video.

 

 

 

*I was having a discussion with a man who doesn't allow his children to listen to any music from the 20th century. It's his business but I'm glad my parents didn't follow that example. I would've never had the pleasure of sitting in my father's lap listening to this:

 

Oh and he also told me that the song was based on Bach's notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach which we listened to as well on many occasions.  

Sick night

 I'm sick  with a monster sinus attack and feeling as limp as Hamlet's Ophelia.  Usually when this happens I just lie in bed in the dark until it passes and listen to music.Tonight I'm listening to a talk on taking religious topics out of context  by Professor William Biersach. He's an interesting fellow and has a pleasant voice. One thing that really struck me is his remorse about all the students he must have influenced back when he was outside of the Church and living as an atheist.  He had a rough time in his youth and there's an intense sadness behind his humor so I don't recommend him if you're looking forward to lighthearted romp. He starts out giggle and snort funny but gets very, very serious.

Something to think about

I live in Northern Virginia. Because the capitol is so close we have people from all over the world here. My neighbors are legal, illegal, Christian, Muslim and Animist. It occurred to me the other day, that I've never heard a Hispanic woman or indeed, any foreign born or first generation in America woman talk badly about her children.  American women complain about their kids all the time. At work it sometimes, seems like a competition about who can complain the most and they even whine in front of the kids. 

 Every evening when it cools off I see Sudanese, Ethiopian and Indian mothers and sometimes fathers, taking their babies for an evening stroll around my building complex. I never see Americans doing this. I've seen Hispanic women walking down the street, women who have worked hard all day, carrying their children after picking them up from day care and those women look so happy. They're poor by our standards, they've got to be tired but they are bouncing their kids, smiling and kissing them. Foreign women, seem to be actually delighted with their children. My Ethiopian neighbors feel sorry for me because I've never been able to carry a pregnancy to full term. American  women, even those who call themselves Christian have called me lucky because I'm not burdened like they are. Does God smile on the American attitude? I think not.

The Joyful Mysteries

Annunciation

 

Visitation

 

Nativity

 

Presentation in the temple

Finding of the Child Jesus in the temple

 

The Glorious Mysteries

The Resurrection

 

 

 The Ascension

 

Descent of the Holy Spirit

 

Assumption of Our Lady

Coronation of Our Lady

 

Assumption of the Holy Virgin and random thoughts

“It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles…it was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and the Handmaid of God.” – St. John Damascene


The Assumption Mass at St. Rita's in Alexandria was incredible. The church was packed and most of the people were in their 20s and 30s. Father Hawk looked tired but zipped around with his usual speed and precision. I never paid attention before but he actually has a quite nice singing voice.




* "Why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself."
"It's the truest word that ever was spoke," said Mrs. Dilber. "It's a judgment on him."'
----A Christmas Carol

At the rate this country is materially disintegrating (the moral rot set in decades ago) I think a lot of people are going to have a Scrooge Christmas Future experience on their deathbeds. Those who were careless in their youth will be made to care in their helpless old age.





*May their orders die out and they be forgotten.  





*Meddling in other people's affairs rarely leads to good. Egypt is an example of this.




*Archbishop Chaput says that most illegals are nice people who will never do anything criminal other than the technical crime of entering the country without anyone’s knowledge. The Archbishop is a decent man and he may be right but people are getting tired and you can't shut them up by telling them that they are bad Catholics. When you think about victims like Louise Sollowin    Vanessa Pham and Brittany Binger  it's perfectly valid to ask where they stand in the immigrant apologist's thinking. 

Madonna of the Rosary

At the Monastery Gate

Holy Mother of God

The Sorrowful Mysteries

 The Agony in the garden

 

 

The Scourging

 

 

The Crowning with thorns

 

Carrying the Cross

 

The Crucifixion

 



This was not good.

Do you believe that the Host is the flesh of Our Lord? Do you believe that the wine is His own precious blood? I get the impression that many, Catholics either don't or that they've gotten so casual with God that they can't be bothered to treat Him with anything other than sloppy indifference or bouts of sentimentality but no real reverence.

This post is in Italian but you can easily translate it using the Google translator feature.

I don't blame the kids. They can't be any better than what they are taught but if this happens at a papal Mass what example does that give? Silly stuff happens at every World Youth Day. The sheer numbers of people makes it impossible to prevent the occurrence of sacrilegious Communions but this was planned. Someone thought it was a good idea and got it approved by clergy. Not good. Not good at all.

Behold the blood of Christ in plastic cups, like beer at the ballpark. Consider this: These cups were not handed back to the priests to be purified. Our Lord's blood most likely ended up in trash cans or spilt on the ground to be trodden on by the huge crowd.

Understanding Pope Francis---Ignore the experts

The pope made an off the cuff remark about gay priests that has gotten a lot of attention. One blogger used the headline "Francis Allows Gay Priests to Exhale," which I found astonishing unless she meant it as an ironic statement. Does anybody remember what things used to be like in the 80s and 90s? Except for the old ones, effete priests were so common that finding a priest who didn't show any womanish mannerisms and who was actually liked, not just tolerated by the men and boys (women on the other hand seemed to love them*) in the parish was like finding a black swan on your porch.

Some of those guys have retired but an unknown number  of them just moved up the ladder. They're running interference in the seminary, they are the gatekeepers in the chancery and have the power. Even if the bishop isn't one of them, your letter or e-mail of complaint has to go through the gatekeepers and the bishop may never know it existed. Nobody was waiting around with bated breath until the Pope said "Who am I to judge?" Even the pedophiles weren't afraid because in case after case we see that they kept on doing what they were doing right up until  they were gelded by the aging process or when the day they were arrested.



So what does the Pope's comment  mean? I don't know and neither do any of the Vaticanistas.    Whenever some self appointed expert tries to tell me what John Paul or Benedict or Francis really meant I tune them out. Until Pope Francis taps someone on the shoulder and says "This guy is my USA consigliere. You can take what he says as coming straight from my heart," don't trust them. The only thing I'm sure of is that the Lord gives us the leaders we deserve as either a comfort or a punishment and only time will tell what this particular wild card turns out to be.


*Interestingly enough, the masculine priests found that the biggest troublemakers when they took over a parish were the middle aged women who had been Fr. Effeminate's biggest fans. God only knows what THAT means.

A week of peace

Whenever Rocky and I head North on vacation we try to stop at the Grotto of Lourdes at Emmitsburg in Maryland. They've made some changes since we were there in February. A new visitor's center with a gift shop and modern bathrooms(!) is open and Father Jack Lombardi is no longer there which means the shrine shares a priest with the St. Seton shrine up the road. The Our Lady of Medjugorje statue is gone (hooray!) and a beautiful statue of Our Lady of LaVang is in its place.  We said the rosary, visited the little chapel, got some spring water and headed on to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Dutch Country is one of our favorite places. We stayed at a really nice bed and breakfast owned by a Mennonite couple, and met some interesting people who were also guests. We ate the best bread in the world, whoopee pies, buttered noodles and ham loaf. We visited an Amish home and toured Wheatlands, the home of President James Buchanan and spent three hours in the National Watch and Clock museum.  They have the Tridentine Mass at St. Anthony's in Lancaster City but we went to the Vigil Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Holland because it was the closest church to us. The parishioners were better dressed than my Northern Virginia folks and their kids were much better behaved. It was  a nice Mass. It's always interesting how Mass at multiple parishes can be so very, very different. Everyone we met was so nice and kind and it was a peaceful respite. On our last day we went to Philadelphia to the St. Rita Shrine.  The church is staffed by the Augustinian friars. It's in an rough neck sort of neighborhood so I advise you to hide anything in your car that screams "tourist". After Philly, we drove home.

The Prayer

It's Rocky's birthday and random thoughts

*There's an interesting thread on raising children on Rorate Caeli. Some of it's good. Some of it made me grimace. Parenting is hard and everybody makes mistakes. The trick is to not make the kind of mistakes that will have your kid sitting in a psychiatrist's office 30 years from now.


*It's Rocky's 49th birthday. It is absolutely amazing to me to think that we've spent more years together than we did with our parents. Rocky is the kindest of men. He's always been my number one champion. No matter what, forever and ever, I know Rocky is on my side and has my best interests at heart. He is good to my mother and  gentle and patient with my uncle who has dementia. On top of that, he's still the best looking man in the room no matter where we go. St. Martha, Rocky's patron saint, pray for him.

*One of the worst things a Catholic can do is be miserable all the time. Even when you're right nobody can endure being exposed to dark-as-night levels of despair day in and day out. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The pope is going to do whatever he's going to do. Bishops and priests can let us down and they do but the biggest troublemaker of all is fellow laymen and women.



* Speaking of laymen, who decides who gets to be a public apologist? 


* Do we have to keep doing WYD? If it's so great, where are all the vocations? Someone give me a concrete number of priests who said they answered Our Lord's call because of their experiences at a World Youth Day. I've heard anecdotes that Fr. So and So was inspired at a WYD or that Sr. So and So became a nun because of her weekend away but anecdotes aren't trustworthy. I also know very nice and college educated people who swear that they heard of a Black woman who named her twins Lemonjello and Orangejello. I've heard that story far too many times and every single person who's told it to me over the years swears that the twins were only recently born.  Anecdotes, tall tales, wishing thinking, lies. I want to see some hard facts and figures.


*I was visiting my uncle in the nursing home yesterday and one of his neighbors mentioned to my mother than nobody from the local parish has been there with Communion or to lead the Rosary in weeks. The local Protestant churches manage to have volunteers who come every Sunday and  even during the week to see about the sick and the elderly but the Catholic residents don't want to attend a Protestant service and have had nothing. That's disgusting and it infuriates me.

 Every busybody wants to be on the parish counsel or a Eucharistic Minister (in Church only, no sick calls please) but nobody wants to do the unpleasant stuff. I'm not asking for volunteers to give my uncle a bath, that's what I'm for but I wish I saw Catholic men and women in the nursing homes singing or running a Bingo game or just sitting and talking with a poor soul who hasn't had a visitor in over a month. The ladies from the AME church of the street from my uncle's nursing home come and sit. They bring treats, knitted items and they sing. I often see a Primitive Baptist (no that's not a pejorative, it's the name of the denomination), Deaconess and her teenaged grandson who come to visit.  The Jehovah's Witness men and women somehow find time to listen, pat a hand and pray over an old gray head. Where the heck are my Catholic people?


*Forget Twilight. THIS is a love story.

Pieta

From a photo from Fr. Lawrence's photo blog.


In a grave they laid thee, O my Life and my Christ: and the armies of the angels were so amazed as they sang the praise of thy submissive love.
O my sweet Lord Jesus, my salvation and my light, how art thou now by a grave and its darkness hid? How unspeakable the mystery of thy love?
From the Lord's Lamentations

Our Lady of Good Consel-- we need you more than ever!

Litany Of Our Lady of Good Counsel

Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ hear us.
Christ graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Pray for us.
Holy Mother of God,
Holy Virgin of Virgins,
Mother of Good Counsel,
Daughter of the Heavenly Father,
Mother of the Divine Son,
Spouse of the Holy Spirit,
Temple of the most Holy Trinity,
Dispenser of graces,
Gate of heaven,
Queen of angels,
Honour of patriarchs,
Glory of prophets,
Counsellor of apostles,
Counsellor of martyrs,
Counsellor of confessors,
Counsellor of virgins,
Counsellor of all saints,
Counsellor of the afflicted,
Counsellor of widows and orphans,
Counsellor of the sick,
Counsellor of the sorrowful and of prisoners,
Counsellor of the poor,
Counsellor of the needy,
Counsellor in all dangers,
Counsellor in all temptations,
Counsellor of penitent sinners,
Counsellor of the dying,
In all affairs and necessities, give us Good counsel,
In all doubts and perplexities,
In afflictions and adversities,
In dangers and misfortunes,
In all undertakings and concerns,
In all our needs,
In crosses and sufferings,
In temptations and snares,
In persecution and calumny,
In all wrongs suffered,
In dangers of soul and body,
In all the events of our life,
In sickness and infirmity,
In the hour of death,
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
Of the world, spare us O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
of the world, graciously hear us O Lord
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
Of the world, have mercy on us O Lord.
V. In all anxiety and trouble
R. Bring us good counsel, O Blessed
Virgin Mary.
Prayer
O God the Giver of all good and perfect gifts, let us who seek refuge with Mary obtain in all our wants, troubles and affairs, good counsel, help and assistance for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son. Amen.

Our Lady of the Rosary

Modesty again.

Last week I saw a post on Rorate Caeli about modesty. The comments got stupid. One of the moderators deleted them all.   Say the word "modesty" and people immediately go berserk with complaints or excuses. It's a lot like the responses to contraception posts.    Modesty is not hard. In fact, it takes more work to be sleazy than it does to be normal. Here's something I wrote a while back on the topic:

Yes, I'll say it. Modesty is not hard at all. You don't have to dress like an Amish woman or a Saudi Arabian. If your neckline is too low put on a camisole or add a strip of stretch lace or get out the safety pins. If your pants are too low make sure you have on a tunic, an undershirt or better yet, just skip low-riders altogether. Pants seem to be a blood-in-the-eye subject for some Catholics which is too bad. Simply remember two things: your age and the situation. I don't care how much you exercise, tight jeans and  jeggings make  women over 30, look like Miss Haversham. Lectors  and ladies bringing up the gifts at Mass need to know that when they bow in pants, nine times out of ten, the view from the pews is not a lovely one.

If you wear a mini skirt --- and come on, you shouldn't, then at least wear dark opaque tights with it. If you have to wear shorts stick to Bermudas and capris. There is no legitimate reason to be seen in public in Daisy Dukes.

If you are have dress that lacks a lining and is in a thin material put on a slip. You may scorn slips as old fashioned but that humble little garment  prevents you from having clinging fabric, see-through incidents, and they save you from the cringe inducing moment of when you realize that you've been walking around  unaware that  your dress was hiked up in the back and you've been mooning the town. 

Your underwear should be unseen. There's nothing more to say about that.  A strapless dress doesn't belong in church, (take note brides) and at best not before 8PM. If you must go strapless then it should be a long, very formal dress. As for swimwear you don't need to wear a bag to the beach or pool but there's no legitimate reason for a bikini and certainly no reason to be seen in a thong. Buy a one piece with brief cut legs or a swim dress and you'll be fine in most circles.  Modesty--- of course you can do this. It's easy.

 

A modern Divina Pastora painting

 

 

Here is a modern version of an Our Lady as Shepherdess painting by Venezuelan artist, Milixa Moron.

Jesus Prayer

           

 

 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Amen

 

 

Blessed Mary Theresa--- someone you should know

The Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver  are the daughters of a remarkable woman whom, most of us have never heard of, Blessed Mary Theresa  Ledochowska. She was the daughter of a Polish Count and had a high place at the court of the Emperor but left it all behind for the love of Africans. She fought slavery and provided spiritual and financial assistance to missionaries in Africa. This magnificent warrior for Christ was felled by tuberculosis in 1922. Pope St. Pious X called her "Mother to the Africans." Mary Theresa didn't sit at home whining. She was not a feminist, nor did she go around muttering, "If I was a priest I could ----." She didn't wait for someone to do something. She did it herself for the love of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Now that's a woman to emulate.

HT to the lovely, Elena Maria of Tea at Trianon

I alwayst tear up the Catholic Relief Services envelope.

Whenever I come across the Catholic Relief Services envelope in  our monthly collection package I tear it up. This article from Life Site talks about the latest scandal.

Walking the talk...or just playing a game

Last month someone wrote to the Anchoress and asked, "So basically, the ‘orthodox Catholic’ game you all play is just that . . . a game?” Mrs. Scalia and her fans defended her ably and that's not what interests me. What bothers me is that question. Catholics look to the pope, the bishop or the priest and we forget that we ourselves are the greatest source of evangelization or scandal for non Catholics or any Catholic who is in a bad place spiritually and wavering. We Catholics say that matrimony is a sacrament and serious and then we turn around and do cute stuff like this it shows that we are full of it. I don't really blame the young couple. I will bet that the other Catholic members of their families cheered them on. The priest should have put his foot down but it never should have gotten to the point where they thought it was cool to ask him about having Otter as a ring bearer.

P.S. I love dogs. I'm more comfortable with animals than I am with most people but the Altar of God is not a playground or a dog park. C'mon. Don't be a Catholic phony.

Two nuns

St. Maria Goretti

 

 

"Yes! Yes! For the love of Jesus, I forgive him, and I want him to be with me in Heaven."

The Good Shepherd and His Mother

St. John Paul II

It's been a long weekend and I think most people are away from home but the reaction to the approaching canonizations of Popes John 23rd and John Paul, II has been pretty subdued. I've seen variations of the "trad's will complain," theme on a number of blog  comment boxes but so far the spicier remarks appear to be coming from a wide spectrum of Catholics, from traditional, to conservative to liberal. 

Except for some people at a site I won't name, nobody has issues with JPII's personal holiness. People are pissed about the one big, undeniable blot on his papacy. I love John Paul, he was the only pope for most of my life. There is a statue of him in my living room. But you can love your papa and still admit that he was not perfectly perfect in every single way.  I'm talking about the pedophile scandal.  The victims are going to protest for the rest of their lives and they have a right to. I don't think any sensible person  expected JPII, desperately sick with Parkinson's to  drag himself to every Satan scented chancery in the world and personally cast out and excommunicate every wicked priest and prelate.  But some of the victims and their champions aren't sensible. They have been completely broken. We must have compassion for these suffering folks. Grunting an explanation of "shut up," and accusing the objector of being a schismatic or just a bad Catholic doesn't help.

If you aren't happy about this canonization, that's okay. If you have mixed emotions, that's okay. We are not called to be delirious with joy over every canonization but we are called to obedience and I trust that the Holy Father has the power to loose and bind on earth and Heaven.

His name was Fr. Francois Murad and other random thoughts

*Fr. Francois Murad was murdered in Syria. It was not quick or clean. God bless you, son of St. Francis. Pray for us.




*Civil marriage is dead but we knew that. For the last five or so decades it's been like a zombie shuffling along. It died when the middle class America accepted divorce and contraception.  Our society is like a man who's being slowly poisoned with tiny doses of antifreeze. He's aware that something is off but nothing gets done until he recieves the really big dose that sends him to the hospital or the morgue.
So, what happens now? I hope Christians will take this as a chastisement and readjust our attitudes. First, the bishops need to stop taking Federal money. Second, brides and grooms need to treat a wedding like a sacrament and not a LasVegas review.  Catholics should not get married like pagans do and we ought not discourage our brothers and sisters who can not afford or just don't want the big fat show boat wedding. I remember one engaged woman who after hearing me describe the very simple (three witnesses and one priest in a dark church) way Rocky and I got married, unconsciously curled her lower lip in disgust and backed two steps away from me. She eventually wed like the only child of royalty and was such a bridezilla that I pitied the young man she was involved with.


*This is one of the best things Fr. Rutler ever wrote.


Cardinal John Njue, you absolutely rock!



*"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. -Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC

The Good Shepherd's Mother

Lucas Cranach, the Elder

 

 

 

 

Lucas Cranach, the Elder created one of the sweetest portaits of Baby Jesus ever painted and one of the greatest of all the depictions of Christ crowned with thorns.

random thoughts

*Years ago I read was wandering around Borders Bookstore and picked up a copy of Fawn Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My History. It's beautifully written and is actually pretty kind to Smith. Brodie's theory was that Joseph Smith was just fooling around when he came up with the angel and golden plates story but then things got out of hand and he couldn't go back on the lie. Eventually because of his tremendous talents of persuasion and preaching Brodie guesses that Smith came to believe his own hype. Mrs. Brodie talks frankly about Smith's twenty plus,  polygamous wives but good taste kept her from going into too much detail. Helen Mar Kimball, was one of the wives and she was just 14. Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner was 12 when Smith first spoke to her about marriage. She was a grown woman and legally married to another man who was out of town on business when Smith finally broke down her resistance and they were sealed. Most women married young in those days but it's the coercion and the callousness of the seductions that is so tragic. Smith doesn't seem to have supported a single wife other than his first one and  his god apparently told him to marry either young girls who's fathers hero worshipped him or married women who's husbands would swallow their pride and pay the bills.

 

 

 

 *We had a guest priest last week and it was weirdly fascinating. He ad libbed prayers, gave us commentary on the readings, chatted with the altar boys, and declared "Hugs and kisses and handshakes!" for the sign of peace. I didn't get upset. Father is elderly and came of age in the 60s. I'm guessing that nobody who lived through the Church's groovy era came out of it unscathed.  I'll be glad when our pastor gets back from vacation.

 

 

 *Envy is a sin, especially you're pretending to be righteous. I was reading a comment on a Catholic site by a woman who wrote with faux sweetness of the "rich" people in their luxury vehicles who come to her town every weekend. It doesn’t seem to occur to this lady that if those rich folks stop coming, her husband and many of her friends will be out of their jobs since the only industry in her town is tourism.  I read another comment on the same blog by a woman who cleans houses for a living. Many of her clients attend the same parish she does. She wrote about their jewelry, their clothes, their children’s activities  and their SUVs and then bragged about her own simple poor but happy life. I was tempted to write in and say, “Hey, ma’am. One way for your clients to simplify their lives would be to fire you.”

 

*Cardinal Dolan.......

The Divine Shepherdess

 

 

This is one of the sweetest Mary as Shepherdess paintings I've ever seen.

The Trinity

The Good Shepherd's Mother

Look at the hat on Baby Jesus!

Random thoughts

*Carol of the Tenth Crusade blog received a somewhat veiled threat against herself and her family. Some poor soul got so wound up about the freely stated opinions on her blog that he actually claims to be watching her kids.  

Have you ever noticed that the meanest, most misogynist, and dangerous people tend to be activists who claim to be for freedom and love?


Mary Stachowicz, pray for us.



*Have you ever clammed up in Confession because you're afraid the priest will recognize your voice? Don't be afraid. Your priest has heard all kinds of things before you came to him and he's not going to run screaming from the confessional. This homily explains it beautifully.



*Yesterday, Rocky and I stopped by a church that we know has a 24 hour Adoration Chapel. A Hispanic prayer group was having a Mass and benediction. The crowd was huge but very well organized. Men in reflecting vests directed traffic. Young ladies in blue and young men in red ushered, opened doors and assisted people inside the church.  It was really was an awesome display of love for Jesus that was spoiled by one thing: we were not welcome. It's obvious that we were not Hispanic and although most people were polite we got some "What are you doing here?" hard stares.  I was inclined to go back to the car but Rocky took my hand and that was it. We went in to the chapel, sat with the Lord, prayed  and  everything was fine. Once we stepped across the chapel threshold we quickly left.

 Segregating the parish on racial lines is not a good thing and it didn't have to be this way.  When we go to the Divine Mercy Shrine in Baltimore, the Polish ladies are wonderfully kind and friendly. One old darling said to us, "This church is for everybody!" The Polish priests go out of their way to make visitors feel welcome. Whoever runs the Oracion Grupo should try to do the same.


* If you have a priest who is willing and able to say the TLM, don't be a jerk if his Latin pronunciation isn't perfect (Is yours? I bet it aint.), or if  he makes a mistake or if he chooses a perfectly valid option that you don't care for. There are many people who would love to be able to go to a bishop approved traditional Mass that's in a regular church at a sensible hour. I've heard stories about people who had to drive for hours or go at 5AM in the morning or in the most dangerous neighborhood in the diocese. Give thanks for what you have.

Portrait of a nun

What a sweet face this nun had! The artist was Richard Cosway.

So now what?

The Holy Father apparently mentioned that there is a gay lobby in the Church. Well, that is a good thing. It's better to face facts and admit the truth than to turn a blind eye to what's going on . So now, the other shoe has to drop. What will the Holy Father actually DO about it?

Madonna of the Dry Tree