at prayer

Return O ye revolting children...

The most evident mark of God's anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than charity and affection of devoted shepherds ...

When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is visiting His most dreadful anger upon them. That is why He cries unceasingly to Christians, "Return O ye revolting children ... and I will give you pastors according to My own heart". (Jer. 3:14,15) Thus, irregularities in the lives of priests constitute a scourge upon the people in consequence of sin.
-St. John Eudes

To the Blessed Sacrament

I adore Thee profoundly, my Jesus, the Living Bread which has come down from heaven; and by this act of adoration I would make amends for all the acts of irreverence which Thy people day by day commit whilst they assist at Holy Mass, in which bloodless Sacrifice Thou dost renew the very Sacrifice which once Thou didst consummate on Calvary for our salvation. I offer Thee, in reparation for all this ingratitude, that most Precious Blood which Thou didst shed from the wound in Thy Right Hand; and, entering therein, I unite my voice with the voices of the holy angels who adore around Thy throne:
Blessed and praised every moment
Be the most holy and divine Sacrament!
Pater noster. Ave Maria. Gloria Patri.


Taken from the Raccolta

A Dutch Madonna

Like his good friend, Gari Melchers, George Hitchcock fell in love with the Dutch country side and he painted Our Lady as a Dutch girl.

They rented the Sistine Chapel?

So Porcshe rented the Sistine Chapel for a corporate event. The Vatican spokesmen say it's okay because charity money was raised. Supposedly the only real difference from this and allowing tourists in to look at the chapel is that the Porsche guests were better dressed and weren't sweaty and stinky. I am reminded of the  time Jesus took exception to money being raised in His Father's house.

Jesus never said it would be soft and easy

This Russian painting shows the first Christians in Kiev attending a clandestine Mass by moonlight.

Madonna and Child

To the Blessed Sacrament..

I adore Thee profoundly, my Jesus, true Bread of life eternal; and by this my act of adoration I would make Thee compensation for all the wounds with which Thy Sacred Heart bleeds daily to see the profanation of those churches wherein Thou dost vouchsafe to abide beneath the sacramental species, to receive the love and adoration of Thy people. I offer Thee, in reparation for all those irreverences, that most Precious Blood which Thou didst shed from the wound in Thy Left Hand, and, entering therein, I say every moment:
Blessed and praised every moment
Be the most holy and divine Sacrament
Pater noster. Ave Maria. Gloria Patri.

This prayer can be found in the Raccolta.

So...........Cardinal Kasper.

Cardinal Kasper, have you forgotten Africans like St. Benedict the Black, St. Marcellinus (left Africa and went to France as a missionary), St. Perpetua and Felicity, Pope St. Victor (first African pope), and Blessed Isidore Bakanja and Blessed Annuarite Nengapeta? They and St. Charles Lwanga and his companions have a lot to teach you sir. You should listen to them.

Blessed Anuarite Nengapeta, marytr. 

Update: Cardinal Kasper denies saying anything rude about Africans in his interview. The reporter has a recording. 

Dear Synod Fathers....God hates divorce.

This is a marvelous work showing a couple that judging by the wife's face have hit a rocky patch in their marriage and she's ready to kick the door open and head to a divorce lawyer. It looks like the couple has gone to the rectory for advice and the dear old priest is cajoling, pleading and preaching that they remember their vows and get past whatever it is that has brought them to this point. I wish the bishops at the synod could see it.

Salvator Mundi

Like Gold From the Furnace

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.” Raymond Chandler from "The High Window"

That quote from Raymond Chandler came to my mind after reading Patrick Archbold's post  (which so far, over 70 people have commented on), about the state of the USA. He thinks it's over. Ann Barhardt has said on many occasions that it's already dead and starting to stink but we just haven't been paying attention.  Patrick isn't sure of what will happen next and Miss Barnhardt is expecting a nasty, violent collapse complete with looting, rape and murders. I haven't really formed a guess yet but I am sure this: politics is not going save us. Our only hope is in the Lord. Probably in two or three generations from now the USA that we know will be completely, obviously no more. God willing something better will come out of the fire like gold from a furnace. 

To the Blessed Sacrament

I adore Thee profoundly, my Jesus; I acknowledge Thee present in the most holy Sacrament. By this act of adoration, I would make amends for the forgetfulness of so many Christian people, who, when they see Thee go to the poor sick, to be their strength in their great journey to eternity, leave Thee unescorted, and hardly give Thee even one outward sign of homage. I offer Thee, in reparation for this coldness, that most Precious Blood which Thou didst shed from the wound in Thy Right Foot, and, entering therein, I say and will never cease to say:
Blessed and praised every moment
Be the most holy and divine Sacrament!
Pater noster. Ave Maria. Gloria Patri.


Taken from the Raccolta.

Mass without pews

A Mass on the battlefield.

This is wrong

 Imagine that I am your servant and I have come to your house with a guest. The guest does not like you so not only do I ask you to stay out of the living room and dinning room while the guest is present but I cover up all the photographs of you and your family because this might offend or at least discomfort the guest. You'd think me mad wouldn't you? Even if you didn't tell me to get the heck out  but instead, for love of me, you kindly put up with this extraordinary request, you would at least consider yourself ill treated and would ponder my lack of love and respect for you.   The intent here is well meaning but we all know what road that leads to. 

For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when he shall come in his majesty, and that of his Father, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26

RIP Fr. Groeschel

Yesterday I was thinking about him as I walked back to work from lunch. Today I read that he's passed away at 81. Rest in peace, Father.

To the Blessed Sacrament...

ACTS OF ADORATION AND REPARATION TO JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.

 I adore Thee profoundly, my Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament; I acknowledge Thee true God and true Man. By this my act of adoration I intend to make Thee reparation for the coldness of so many of Thy people, who pass before Thy churches, nay, before Thy very tabernacle, where hour after hour Thou dost deign to dwell in loving impatience to communicate Thyself to Thy faithful; yet do not even bow the knee before Thee, but, like the Israelites in the wilderness, seem by their indifference to loathe this heavenly manna. I offer Thee Thine own most Precious Blood which Thou didst shed from the wound in Thy Left Foot, in reparation for this hateful coldness, and, entering therein, I say, and will never cease to say:
Blessed and praised every moment
Be the most holy and divine Sacrament.
Pater noster. Ave Maria. Gloria Patri. 



From the Raccolta.

Three Nuns

Alter Cristus

A medieval St. Matthew and the Angel

The angel seems to be saying, "Excuse me, may I interest you in writing a gospel?"

A Cappuchin

Suit up and be ready for anything....random thoughts on a sick day.

I've been sick off an on since June  and today  I decided to stay home in my nice dark bedroom, take my migraine pills and try to get some rest.  In between naps it has been a random thoughts kind of day.

• Last night we went to the Thursday night TLM at St. Rita's. The altar boys were just leaving after having had practice. In the parking lot we heard a  little altar boy asking a big one (he looked about 13) for advice. The big altar boy said, "Suit up and be ready for anything," Rocky and I found that funny and Rocky figures that the boy was talking about the big family Mass at mid day on Sundays but that advice is pretty good for life in general. 

• The Texas Poor Clares make some really nice soap. Speaking of nuns I was mistaken for one two weeks ago and that still stuns me. I was wearing earrings, lipstick, and a nice (although it was navy) dress and my hair comes to my shoulders and in no way resembles a truck driver. On top of all that I was with Rocky. Now granted, we were not slobbering all over each other as we walked the grounds of the Charles Caroll House which is on the St. Mary's Church property, but we were clearly a couple. What kind of crazy little  nuns do they have running around  in Annapolis, MD?
  
• What's the deal with the three days of darkness? I can not find any mention of this prophesied divine chastisement in the Catholic Encyclopedia. People I respect believe strongly in this but the Holy See has never, to my knowledge said "Yes, children, this is safe to believe." It seems to me that after the Warning there would be no need for further chastisement or that if 70% of the world is going to be wiped out the survivors are going to have a pretty tough time of it until Judgement Day.
  
  
• I really like the Pray More Novena's site. I have found it very helpful.

• I have a feeling Supreme Court Justice Ruth Vader Ginsburg is going to be very surprised one day when she finds out that the court will go on without her without even so much as a hiccup and that her eugenicist views are not going to look too good when she goes before the Ultimate Judge. At her age this will be sooner rather than decades later. 

• No matter what happens ---if anything--at the October synod nothing will really change. If you divorce your spouse, take up with your secretary with the long legs and pneumatic bosom and then strut up to Communion you will be eating and drinking your own destruction. The priest can be forced to place the Host in your hands, the rest of us can be threatened with social ostracism if we don't call your mistress your wife and you can ignore the faces of your children but all that really matters is that Jesus said :

But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.

• Fr. Paul Nicholson says the SSPX praying is worse than a Satanic Mass. I don't know a single person who attends a SSPX chapel but I was really disappointed in him for saying that. Since I hold the words of Mother Vogl concerning priests dear, I won't say any more about this. 

• Colleen Hufford was 54 years old. The poor lady got up this morning and got ready for work at the Vaughan Foods processing plant just like any other normal day. She may have read or listened to music on her way to work. She may have thought about her family or about what she was going to have for dinner when she got home. She may have had plans for the weekend. When she got work a Muslim, who reportedly had been fired for harassing other employees about converting and arguing that it was okay to stone "sinful" women, beheaded her. He used a fillet knife. Colleen Hufford did not die quickly as she would've done from a machete, or a strike from a master  swordsman. She died in what must have been unspeakable agony until she finally bled out. After butchering Colleen, he stabbed a 43 year old co-worker, who was also older than him and female. His rampage was ended because a brave man at the plant shot him. He is still in possession of  his wicked life so he still has time to repent.
  
  This did not happen in California or New York City or even in some place that has a huge foreign born Muslim population like Minnesota or Chicago. This happened in Oklahoma. The Muslim who killed her did not look like he just walked out of the desert. He looks like the same ordinary guys you'd see on the bus or the sidewalk or in the apple section of the grocery store.  When that poor woman in England was beheaded one of my co-workers and her friends cracked nervous Highlander jokes. If anyone is joking now they are like the people Hillaire Belloc was talking about when he wrote, "But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile."
  
  Eternal rest grant unto Colleen Oh Lord, let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace.

Prayers

First Communion

Anima Christi

Anima Christi, sanctifica me. Corpus Christi, salva me. Sanguis Christi, inebria me. Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. Passio Christi, conforta me. O bone Iesu, exaudi me. Intra tua vulnera absconde me. Ne permittas me separari a te. Ab hoste maligno defende me. In hora mortis meae voca me. Et iube me venire ad te, Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te. In saecula saeculorum. Amen. 

At prayer

Random thoughts and A few good blogs

• I know a lot of people are mad that the Archbishop Sheen's cause for sainthood has been temporarily closed but despite the way it went down, is the slow down really a bad thing? He died in 1979, and that's too soon to talk about canonization unless you're talking about a martyr or a super saint who raised people from the dead, or went to a foreign pagan country and miraculously was able to speak the language and converted millions.  I am not knocking the archbishop, I'm just saying slow down and stop running on emotion. 

• The most well known Catholic blogs seem to be on Church politics, current events and the pope's doings. This is okay, but if you're looking for something different; or something devotional, I found some fine blogs and a website that are not widely known but definitely deserve to be. 

• The Cloistered Heart is a wonderful blog, gorgeous to look at and a pleasure to read. 
• Unum Sanctum Catolicum is a chewy, meaty blog. I always learn something when I stop by. 
• Holy Card Heaven is simply beautiful. 
• Blessed is She is all about the daily missal readings. 
• Liturgica Latina is a great source of information.
• Those Catholic Men is written for men but I like it too.
• The Roman Martyrolgoy
  
  
• I've always wondered why Evangelicals and many Catholics have nothing to say about the plight of Christians in the Middle East. Other than the Franciscans I don't see much support for the beleaguered Christians in Israel either. In the comment boxes of various sites just this week I've seen many self proclaimed Evangelicals say that the Catholic and Orthodox of the Middle East aren't real Christians anyway. Archbishop Amel Nona has something to say to these people but they aren't listening. All those decades of ecumenicism doesn't seem to have produced much.

Cardinal McCarrick says that Catholic social teaching and the what the Koran teaches are pretty similar

Retired DC Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is a charming conversationalist with self deprecating humor and twinkling eyes. When he was in his 60s he looked like a Leprechaun come to life and is a master politician. He also confirmed Rocky and for that reason, my dear husband retains some fondness for him. I'd like to say his praise  of Islam is due to the mental decline that can come with old age but he's been humble and conciliatory towards Mohammed's creed for years and he's not the only one. It's like people are so afraid that they can't wait to bend their knees now in hopes they'll be spared later. Maybe this great cowardice is the reason why ISIS is having such success and why Islam in general has become so strong in the West.

St. Raymond Nonnatus, who risked your own life to rescue Christians slaves in Algeria, and who when imprisoned there, converted many of your captors, pray for your brother priests and bishops.

Mass without pews

The Church of St. Francis of Assisi by Elizabeth Nourse

Miserere

Benedict Option? I don't think that phrase means what you think it does.

Whenever I hear someone talk about the Benedict Option I wonder they know what that really means. St. Benedict did not stand up one day and announce, "This empire is doomed. Me and my boys are going to head to the backwoods and watch it burn. If any lay people show up we'll teach them all the arts and sciences they forgot after the barbarians destroyed everything." 

The saint was a hermit for years before founding his monasteries. I don't see St. Benedict and his sister, St. Scholastica as hiding from the world or deciding to build a private little community for lay people. They were serving God first, and striving to save souls. The preservation of Western culture came later, much later as a happy side effect on Benedictine monasticism.  If you and a few like minded families go off some where intending to build a utopia you won't be latter day St. Benedicts.  If you really want to imitate St. Benedict then leave all behind and head to the monastery or the convent. If you are called to the lay state then you can become a Benedictine oblate.  

A Capuchin

A litany of Our Lady

Holy Virgin of virgins, 

Mother of Christ, 

Mother of divine grace, 

Mother most pure, 

Mother most chaste, 

Mother inviolate, 

Mother undefiled, 

Mother most amiable, 

Mother most admirable, 

Mother of good counsel, 

Mother of our Creator, 

Mother of our Savior, 

Virgin most prudent, 

Virgin most venerable, 

Virgin most renowned, 

Virgin most powerful, 

Virgin most powerful, 

Virgin most merciful, 

Virgin most faithful, 

Mirror of justice, 

Seat of wisdom, 

Cause of our joy, 

Spiritual vessel, 

Vessel of honor, 

Singular vessel of devotion, 

Mystical rose, 

Tower of David, 

Tower of ivory, 

House of gold, 

Ark of the covenant, 

Gate of heaven, 

Morning star, 

Heath of the Sick, 

Refuge of sinners, 

Comforter of the afflicted, 

Help of Christians, 

Queen of Angels, 

Queen of Patriarchs, 

Queen of Prophets, 

Queen of Apostles, 

Queen of Martyrs, 

Queen Confessors, 

Queen of Virgins, 

Queen of all Saints, 

Queen conceived without original sin, 

Queen assumed into heaven, 

Queen of the most holy Rosary, 

Queen of Peace,

For the love of St. Patrick...something stinks in the NY diocese and DC smells kinda funny too

Okay, by now you've probably read that the New York St. Patrick Day Parade organizers broke under pressure from their corporate sponsors and  are going to allow homosexuals to march in the parade with their own banner. On top of this, Cardinal Dolan is going to be the grand marshal of the parade. Is anybody really surprised?  What's more interesting is an essay on the DC archdiocese website, written by  DC priest Msgr. Charles Pope who argued that it's time to do away with the parade and the Al Smith dinner too. When I read it I thought two things: First, that the monsignor was going to catch some flak for  this opinion and second, that the essay would probably be removed from the archdiocese site within the hour. Sure enough, the essay is gone. Lifesite news has re-posted the whole thing for now.   Say a prayer for the monsignor. I have a feeling that this isn't over for him.


As to St. Patrick Day itself; how does getting drunk in public honor St. Patrick? Never-mind the homosexual obsession with the parade in New York, let's be honest enough to admit that  that the day was already ruined and has been for decades.The memory of the tough, holy man who converted pagan Ireland has nothing to do with much of what goes on during his feast day and he can  not be pleased by a profane bacchanal in the middle of what is supposed to be a penitential season.  After reading Monsignor Pope's essay I was reminded of a video of a talk given by a Swiss priest last year entitled "There is a Danger that this Year's Lent Will Be the Same Joke". Here's a challenge that doesn't involve a bucket of ice water. Next year why try prayer and fasting for St. Patrick's Day? St. Patrick's adopted Irish eyes will smile on you.

A monk

REPOST---There are Four Lights

Although I'm a classic Star Trek kind of gal, I  was usually content to watch Star Trek New Generation. The show's writers got heavy handed at times when pushing certain repugnant social views  and there are some episodes that I can't stomach to this day. I was very fond of Picard, Worf, and Data,  tolerated Riker, loathed Deanna Troi and was delighted when that horrible Wesley Crusher left the show. I think one of the greatest performances Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard ever gave--and there were many---was  in the two part "Chain of Command" episode. Picard has been taken prisoner and tortured. He is told that the pain will stop and he can live in comfortable captivity for the rest of his life if he says he sees five lights flashing when there are obviously only four. Picard refuses to lie to please his torturer and says there are four lights.


In a meeting with some members of the Franciscans of the Immaculate the pope may have  paraphrased a quote from St. Ignatius Loyola indicating that if the pope says something black is really white then we must believe it is white. What did the Holy Father mean by this? It is impossible to say and I won't speculate as so many people have done. I'll only say that the Holy Father appears to have gotten the quote wrong. St. Ignatius Loyola said or wrote:


We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears(emphasis mine) white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides. 

Saint Ignatius was not telling his order that they had to believe that an actual black object was white if the pope said so. That would have been ludicrous and a rejection of the logic that Jesuits became famous for. The saint was saying that if you think something is true, good etc. based on your own knowledge or experience, be docile and wise enough to realize that you don't know everything and in fact, you know practically nothing compared to the dogma of the Church. You may think it's okay to marry for the third or fourth time but the Church says it is not so. You may think it's okay to miss Mass a few times in a month but the Church says it is not so. You may think that your concubine is the same as a wife but the Church says it is not so. Really, the saint was NOT saying go be a simpleton.

If your priest, a nun, a bishop or even the pope says it's raining when you can clearly see that it is not you are not bound to believe that or parrot it back. If you are told there are five lights when you see darn well that there are only four you are free to have the courage to say like Picard, beaten, exhausted, terrorized that no dammit,"There...are..FOUR...lights!"  

The Passion of St. John

Herod by James Tissot

The House of Herod was an astonishingly sick one even by the standards of the day. Herod the Great, was a monstrous individual and the first of a long line of anti-Christs. A Roman contemporary famously quipped that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son and that was true. Herod did not eat pork--in public anyway but his paranoia drove him to kill not only his wife, her mother and her still teen-aged brother but two of his sons as well.When Herod wasn't killing his family, he was killing enemies, real and imagined and making his subjects miserable. His viciousness was such that his courtiers probably weren't shocked when he ordered the Slaughter of the Innocents.

Herodias  who was a key figure in the Passion of St. John, was the granddaughter of Herod the Great by one of his murdered sons. She was married to her half uncle, Herod II, (also called Herod Phillip) a son by King Herod's third wife.  At some point she dumped  her husband and taking her daughter, Salome went off to Gallilee  in order to be with his half brother Herod Antipas, another son of Herod the Great by his fourth wife.  Her new husband, Herod Antipas was both her brother-in-law and her uncle.

St. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, of whom Our Lord said there was none greater born of woman, looked at the adulterous, incestuous couple and saw that they were crooked people sprung from a crooked house. Most people would've turned away, repulsed and given the situation up as hopeless  but John did not. The Gospels tell us the rest of the story. His passion is commemorated on August 29.

St. John the Baptist by Mattia Pretti

St. John, precursor of the Lamb of God, pray for us. 

Thank you Monsignor Ricci

Monsignor Giullio Ricci was Vatican archivist and sindonologist in the 60s. He created this painting based on his observations of the Holy Shroud which shows a Man who wore a cap of thorns rather than the circlet we are all used to seeing in art. There is a crucifix in St. Peter Church in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia that is modeled after one created by the monsignor. The first time I saw it I dropped to my knees and cried.

My thorn crowned Captain

"Woe to me if I should prove to be a half hearted soldier in the service of my thorn crowed Captain"

St. Fidelis pray for us

The Christ Child

a Carthusian

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• The Assumption Mass at St. Rita's was awesome, not in the teenage sense of the word but awe inspiring. The line for confession was so long that Fr. wasn't able to leave the confessional until Mass was almost over and the crowd was large and young. 
• 1964 Blog very interesting and useful for statistics.
• One Peter Five is a newly launched project of Steve Skojec and so far it's excellent. Except for Hilary White at Orwell's picnic, I don't think any Catholic media outlet or blogger has mentioned it at all.
• I've  been reading Regina Magazine and just noticed that they have a blog 
• I really had no intention of writing anything about Robin Williams but the tweet from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is really disturbing. The genie isn't free. He's dead and it was not a gauzy movie death like Gary Cooper in  Beau Geste or Bette Davis in Dark Victory. This was slow and painful and ugly. My mother was a housekeeping supervisor for nearly 30 years. She's told me the story of how a guest hung herself one night back in the 70s. The maid and the houseman who found her were horrified and the houseman just moaned and fell back out of the room when he saw her. I don't know who cleaned up the bodily fluids and solids but someone had to in order for the room to be usable again. Unlike that woman who hung herself from a closet door and jumped, Robin Williams's death  was probably slow and painful. The Academy sugar coated poison and I hope no person suffering from depression decides that killing themselves will set them "free". 

• Have you noticed that the cries of support for the Iraqi Christians from American Christian (I'm including Catholics in this)  leaders have been pretty weak? Have you ever noticed how  Protestants seem to find the Catholics and Orthodox of the Holy Land particularly embarrassing and never mention them when they talk about Israel? A young Protestant blogger wrote something that I could dismiss as the folly of youth except for the fact that it tracks perfectly with the thought of Evangelicals that I have known. She thinks the Christians of Iraq aren't really Christian because they are Catholic. I doubt that she even knows these people's ancestors were practicing the Faith 1000 years before her sect was even invented.

First Communion memory

My first Communion dress was not white. It was navy blue with Swiss dots and a crinoline. My mother was way too thrifty to buy a new dress when I already had four perfectly nice ones, none of which was white. No matter, it was my favorite dress and I have to admit it gave me a secret thrill to stand out from the other girls. Looking at the expression on the face of the girl on the left brought that memory back to me.  

Holy Family

Random thoughts on diocese doings......

* I'm not a big fan of Bishop Loverde but I'm intrigued by an event he is going to attend in September. He's going to be talking about conversion at Hylton Chapel in Woodbrige, Virginia and that's rather mind blowing.  Imagine a hound dog walking up to a coyote den and telling the inhabitants that there's another way to live that doesn't involve eating the farmer's livestock.  Rocky's parents lived in Woodgbridge and we've driven past Hylton many a time. The chapel is Evangelical/Pentecostal/hard core Protestant central.   Anne Barnhardt refers to to places like Hylton as super fun rock band church. TD Jakes,  Kenneth Copeland, and  Rick Warren have all spoken there. You can have your big Protestant of-all-kinds graduation, wedding, a funeral, concert or conference there.  I am amazed they are allowing Catholics on the premises.  Among the other speakers will be the Conversion Diary blogger who is a former atheist and Fr. Longenecker. I think the former atheist will do fine, Taking  Fr. Longenecker's online persona into consideration, I think he'll do well  with the people from the surrounding counties of Fairfax and parts of Stafford but I don't think he'll mesh with the local Woodbridge and Dale City guys. Still, I applaud the effort and I hope it brings some souls to the Faith.




*Rocky and I had a remarkable experience last week. We went to a Tridentine Latin Mass and a Novus Ordo Mass in the same day.  We were struck by how much adlibbing the priest did in the NO Mass even though he was completely reverent and sober in his manner and by how much of the Mass was dominated by the cantor/ lector  who I'm sure is a nice lady but also couldn't help adding her personal touch to the Mass. Even though we attend both forms every week it was really startling seeing both forms in one day.

First and Last Communion

This powerful painting by Cristobal Rojas shows a dying little girl who can not make it to church for her First Communion so the priest has brought Jesus to her. The viewers sees that the little one probably will not recover and this is not only her very first Communion but it is Food for her journey to Heaven as well.

Three visits to the chapel

 I was feeling so low about work (I may write about that later) that Rocky stopped at the St. Charles Borromeo  chapel in Arlington  so I could pray but  this visit was not in the least bit uplifting. The carpet in the Blessed Sacrament chapel was dirty and smelled moldy. The flowers in front of the Blessed Sacrament were dying and a strong odor of wet decay came from the befouled, slimy water. The chairs could've used freshening up as well. I knelt down in front Our Lord and felt  a wave of sadness at seeing  Him treated so poorly in his own house.  I wasn't expecting much to begin with. St. Charles is one of the ugliest churches in the diocese and I think the architect must have been an A-plus student of the brutalist school,  but ugly style or not there is no excuse for the lack of tenderness and  attention to the chapel.  St. Charles is not a poor parish, far from it but it's not even a matter of finances.

How much would it cost to throw out the dead flowers? Heck, how much time would it have really taken to change the water so the flowers would last longer than a day? Would it be so hard to get the janitor steam clean the carpet?  I got up and listened to the staff laughing in the office and then I went back to the chapel. Rocky came in and we prayed together. A young Filipina lady came knelt down to pray so we felt that it was okay to leave. I thought about that chapel and the prison floor and ceiling scene from The Passion of the Christ all the way home.

A few days later we took a mini break for Rocky's 50th birthday and went to Mass at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore. St. Alphonsus looks like my childhood idea of Heaven. The architecture soars straight up and there are saints or angels everywhere you look. After Mass we went to the Adoration chapel. It was totally different than St. Charles. The flowers were not dead and dying, the stone floor was clean, the pews were hard wood but not so dirty that it felt unnerving to sit there and there was palpable tenderness and love filling the room. Someone did their best to make a resting place for our King. The next day we went to Colonial Beach in Virginia and visited St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It's a darling little church with friendly people. We prayed in the company of four ladies and again, with not a lot of money they made something really beautiful for God.

Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord.....

I've never met Sarah Harkins, known for her Clay Rosary Girl blog, but I've seen her lovely hand made rosaries. She was a Virginia wife and mother in my diocese and a real Proverbs 31 woman. Mrs. Harkins was stung by yellow-jackets on her property. She was rushed to the hospital but died of an aneurysm brought on by the allergic reaction to the yellow-jacket venom. Her unborn baby, Cecilia died with her.  Please pray for the repose of their souls and for her husband  four surviving children. A charity fund has been set up and if you can send anything please do.

Should Priests blog? Part II

Fr. Pinot, French martyr

I've said before that priest's really shouldn't blog unless it's strictly their homilies and catechetical or apologetic material or posts about parish events. I've seen blogs by priests that were downright scary. A priest is an alter Cristus. He should not seem like a pop star tossing PR tidbits to his fans or a guru communicating his wishes to his groupies. His blog should never  leave readers wondering about how his lifestyle is financed or speculating that Father has too much time on his hands or if what they just read was written by a real priest at all.

Blessed Fr. Pinot,  courageous example for priests and us all, pray for us.
Mother Vogl, pray for us.
St. Pio, pray for us.
 Blessed Fr. Pro, pray for us.
 Blessed Fr. Popieluzko, pray for us.
Cardinal Mindzdenty, pray for us.
St. Fr. Edmund Campion, pray for us.
Priest martyrs of Nagasaki, pray for us.
Priest martyrs of Gorkum, pray for us.

St. Juliana of Liege

a Carthusian

St. Francis was not a bird feeder

The Poor Man of Assisi embraced the Cross and climbed the holy mountain of God. He bore the marks of the crucifixion and if his experience was like that of his spiritual son, St. Pio, he must have suffered every day of his life.  He was not skipping around Italy singing with a bluebird on his shoulder  and kissing St. Bernards. The sentimental presentations of him are cheap and don't come anywhere near the truth of the mighty saint.












*A curious man once asked Padre Pio if his stigmata hurt. The saint replied, "Do you think the Lord gave them to me for a decoration?"

Random thoughts...

Sacred Heart of Jesus I trust in Thee.

*I haven't given a dime to Catholic Charities in years and it looks like I won't be giving anymore in the near or distant future but they don't need it. They have a new sugar daddy and his name is Uncle Sam.  Les Femmes has the story. As I said before this is going to boomerang on the Church and it's already starting. People are not grumbling against the Episocopalian groups or the Baptist groups in the comment boxes I've read this weekend. They are blaming the Catholics and by the way, these people don't come off as the usual anti-Catholics. They sound like normal people who feel that they've been tricked.


*Pope gotcha down? I sympathize. I will not tell you to buck up or pooh pooh you and I think Michael Voris, whom I usually like, is wrong when he tells Catholics to take chill pill. St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Henry did not hush up and chill when it came to a messy papal situation. In Voris's defense I'm guessing that he's part of my generation. Except for the folks who were lucky enough to be in unhip backwater parishes, we mostly grew up with  crazy or effeminate priests, and bishops who seemed determined to stamp out what orthodoxy remained in their parishes.  The only one we had to look up to was the pope.  I suspect that for Voris to say one word of criticism about the Holy Father is going to be like passing a kidney stone. As for those who are openly expressing alarm over the current Holy Father, I will only say this: It must have been very painful for good Catholics who lived in Rome and daily saw Pope Alexander VI with his mistress and children. God has put us on this earth at this particular time to live with this particular pope for a reason. Mary, help of Christians, pray for us.


*I don't watch network TV anymore and haven't for years. Those of you who still do have a choice to make regarding CBS. 



*Awhile back there was a series of posts at the LMS blog on Catholic fashion. To be honest I found the whole thing tiresome and a little snotty. Catholic ladies, dress however you like ---as long as it's modest, appropriate to the situation and doesn't make you look a fool.




*I saw this on the Ramblings of a Deranged Mind blog and thought it was worth saving in my quote journal. While Americans are distracted by stupid stuff, things are happening and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Mother of Sorrows

St. Peter, penitent

It is said that St. Peter never forgot that he forsook Our Lord three times before the rooster crowed and did penance for it all the rest of his life.

Boomerang

 The diocese of San Bernadino in California is working with the Federal government to deal with the latest immigrant crisis. Other dioceses are doing the same and various Catholic Charities offices have received grant money to provide services.

I think this  is going to boomerang hard  on the Church. Digital Hairshirt has a couple of really good observations from a legal perspective. I myself lived through the mess of good intentions several years ago when Catholic Charities and the Episcopalians brought a large number of Somalis to my neighborhood. It didn't go well. Most of the refugees had never seen a toilet, a sink  or a stove and and they set fires at least once a week. Sometimes I'd be awakened twice in ONE night because the firemen were banging on the door looking for the fire. It was nerve wracking. And then  there were the social issues... The ladies and the children were fine but some of the young men were aggressive. There was also the matter of the smell.  The ladies naturally wanted to cook foods from home, most which to Western noses, stank horribly. My neighbors didn't blame the government. They grumbled about the Catholic Do-Gooders and busybodies,  (everybody seemed to forget about the Episcopalians) who, in their eyes created the dangerous mess. One town up the road that also got a lot of Somalis ended up demanding that Catholic Charities not bring anymore people to their area. I'll bet most of the people who lived through that experience still bristle or shiver when they think about it.  

St. Francis was not a bird feeder

Mass without pews

The Child Jesus, Savior of the World

I didn't care for this painting at first and then I remembered that I've seen little Orthodox boys in New York and in Pennsylvania with curls just like this. 

There are four lights.

Although I'm a classic Star Trek kind of gal, I  was usually content to watch Star Trek New Generation. The show's writers got heavy handed at times when pushing certain repugnant social views  and there are some episodes that I can't stomach to this day. I was very fond of Picard, Worf, and Data,  tolerated Riker, loathed Deanna Troi and was delighted when that horrible Wesley Crusher left the show. I think one of the greatest performances Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard ever gave--and there were many---was  in the two part "Chain of Command" episode. Picard has been taken prisoner and tortured. He is told that the pain will stop and he can live in comfortable captivity for the rest of his life if he says he sees five lights flashing when there are obviously only four. Picard refuses to lie to please his torturer and says there are four lights.


In a meeting with some members of the Franciscans of the Immaculate the pope may have  paraphrased a quote from St. Ignatius Loyola indicating that if the pope says something black is really white then we must believe it is white. What did the Holy Father mean by this? It is impossible to say and I won't speculate as so many people have done. I'll only say that the Holy Father appears to have gotten the quote wrong. St. Ignatius Loyola said or wrote:


We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears (emphasis mine) white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides. 

Saint Ignatius was not telling his order that they had to believe that an actual black object was white if the pope said so. That would have been ludicrous and a rejection of the logic that Jesuits became famous for. The saint was saying that if you think something is true, good etc. based on your own knowledge or experience, be docile and wise enough to realize that you don't know everything and in fact, you know practically nothing compared to the dogma of the Church. You may think it's okay to divorce and then take a lover as long as you don't live in the same house but the Church says it is not. You may think it's okay to miss Mass a few times in a month but the Church says it is not so. You may think that your concubine is the same as a wife but the Church says it is not so. Really, the saint was NOT saying go be a simpleton.

If your priest, a nun, a bishop or even the pope says it's raining when you can clearly see that it is not you are not bound to believe that or parrot it back. If you are told there are five lights when you see darn well that there are only four you are free to have the courage to say like Picard, beaten, exhausted, terrorized that no dammit, "There...are..FOUR...lights!"