Rest in peace

 Apparently New York will not be doing a 9/11 tribute this year. 

In your charity...

 In your charity would you please pray for my uncle? I think he's become depressed. He's 77 and admitted that he doesn't eat everyday. He doesn't see the point. He also sits in the dark because he doesn't see the point of spending money for electricity at night.  

On the bleeding wounds of our crucified Lord.

On the bleeding wounds of our crucified Lord.

Jesu, no more, it is full tide

From Thy hands and from thy feet,

From Thy head, and from thy side,

All Thy Purple Rivers meet.

Thy restless feet they cannot go.

For us and our eternal good

As they are wont; what though?

They swim, alas! in their own flood.

Thy hand to give thou canst not lift;

Yet will thy hand still giving bee;

It gives, but oh it self's the Gift,

It drops though bound, though bound 'tis free.

 

Sleeping in the bed that the feminists made and other random thoughts

• When I was a child my parents lived in a building that had an office employee whose nick name was Pinky. I never knew what Pinky's real name was. He always wore pink or pastels and his hair was in the same style as my mother's. He hated children, spoke quietly and quickly to men, and hung around with a group of older women with no families or husbands. They hissed and cackled like a coven of witches.  I never saw him with any of my mother's friends or any women who seemed happy or nice. My mother was polite to him but since she despised gossip  she never conversed with him about anything but maintenance requests. 
  
  There is a priest, who I will not name who reminds me of Pinky. He spends a lot of time on social media and seems to have a bee in his bonnet concerning the nun who spoke at the RNC convention. I was too young to understand why Pinky seemed timid or hostile towards normal ladies  and although I take offense at the nun's referring to Our Lady as an unwed mother,  I think I see what this priest's problem might be. When I was a child I found Pinky to be frightening at times because of the blazing meanness that always seemed to exude from him  but as an adult I look at this Pinky-like priest and feel revulsion and then profound sadness because he is a priest.
  
   One day a future pope is going to have the courage to suppress  the Jesuits, and  the Legion of Christ and require a severe reform of much of the Franciscan and Redemptorist orders. 
  
  St. Peter Damian, pray for us. 
  
  
  
  
  
•  A week ago a woman walked up to a Philadelphia cathedral lector who had just finished reading  and punched her twice. It probably wouldn't have made the news if it hadn't been caught on the Mass live stream video. The police later said the attacker is non compos mentis  and let her go. Some people assumed that this was a BLM attack but it's more likely that this woman was simply nuts. The mad, the drug addict, and the drunkard are usually to be found on the steps, the grounds and in the pews of big city churches, especially the cathedrals. When Rocky attended Bible study at St. Mathew's Cathedral he used to check the ladies room before anyone went in because it wasn't unusual to find someone in there who might get aggressive with a lone woman. 
  
  One person watched the video of the frightening incident  and asked in her Tweet where the men were. I didn't laugh but I did smile sadly. Ladies, depending on where you live, we women have been on our own for decades and quite a few of us deserve it. If you stood silent or cheered, "Go Girl!," while at least two generations of boys were mentally castrated then you don't have the right to complain "Where are the men?" 
  
  
  
  
  
• I remember when Hurricane Isabel hit Virginia. After three days with no power our apartment building got hot and humid and the smell in the common ares was pretty gross. When my husband I and stepped out into the hall we actually smelled waste and I do not mean kitchen trash. Why that happened when we all still had flushing toilets and tap water is a mystery but we never forgot how unpleasant things got within a mere three days. Just when I snapped and told Rocky that we had to go to my mother's, the power came back on. Rocky and I have been seriously thinking about what we are going to do in an civil emergency and the knowledge that quite a few of our neighbors are going to be a problem has got us looking for backup housing. Wherever we go, it has to be within driving range of a decent parish with a reverent Mass. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Speaking of parishes, Rocky and I were driving along and saw a church that we've never noticed before. We went in and it was awful. It was one of those gray and beige concrete block warehouse style churches with the corridors to the school, office and meeting rooms. It took a few minutes to find the actual church and then it took more minutes to find the Blessed Sacrament. We left because there was  a meeting going on and the attendees didn't look too happy to see us. I asked a Knight of Columbus who was there if they had a chapel and he told me that due to Corona the chapel was  being repurposed for use as their confessional.  When we went back to the car we noticed an old man praying his rosary in the garden. It was a nice garden and since it wasn't too inviting inside he had the right idea. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The younger Gordon brother and his wife are going to teach a Catholic Home Economics course starting in October. That's not a bad idea in itself. A shamefully large number of young people seem to have no idea how to fry an egg, clean a toilet properly or manage their personal finances.   However, if you don't have or want to spend  $250 for the course  you can watch home arts videos on You Tube at no additional cost beyond your internet service. Check out Alaska Granny, At Home with Lynn Wilson, This and That with Denise Jordan and Lynette Yoder.  

 

Mass in a mask

 It's allergy season and I started coughing at Mass. Several people looked at me and gave me some hard stares. I felt Rocky tense up beside me. If anyone had dared to say anything to me he was ready to tell them off. 

Mass before pews

 

Excuse me, I have a nitpick.

 

George Neumayr, confirming what @TaylorRMarshall said yesterday regarding Steubenville: https://t.co/YYqJVzH759 pic.twitter.com/MmrAjEDg9y

— MrCasey (@MrCasey62) August 22, 2020

I don't know anything about the rest of this but the last lines leave me mystified.  Monsignor Jameson, was rector of St. Matthew's Cathedral long before Donald Wuerl arrived from Pittsburgh. 

a beautiful homily for the Feast of the Assumption

 The Assumption was not a Holy Day of obligation this year and there was not a word about it at Mass today. Here's a beautiful homily for the feast. 

and here we are

 

Love and sacrifice

A young priest posted this and some people complained. He pointed out that this quote is from Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the response was silence. Now, if you've read this blog you already know that saying Archbishop Sheen said something is not the end of the conversation for me. Archbishop Sheen was sterling before Vatican II but afterwards he said and did some disappointing things. However, Archbishop Sheen was absolutely correct here. 

Anyone who's been married knows that marriage is not a bed of roses. Romance and  true love are not the same. When my husband's grandfather was dying his wife fed him, bathed him and sat by him until the end.  When my grandfather became bed-ridden, my grandmother had to move the family from the farm to town and get a job as a cook in a local restaurant.  My grandfather died when he was only 51. There are no poems or pop songs about home nursing or watching your fine young husband become helpless.

My husband has sat in waiting rooms while I've had surgeries, medical procedures and doctor visits. He's been there  when I had the flu, bronchitis and migraines. I've taken care of him after his surgeries. And you know what? Those were days of grace. 

When we married my in-laws were not happy. My mother-in-law even called my mother and asked if she couldn't convince me to to get an annulment.  My mom set her straight but the problem remained for years. I was the wrong class and the wrong religion. My husband hung on to me harder. In contrast, when my in-laws overstepped in my brother-in-law's marriage he clung to them and his wife found herself working hard to please Big Daddy and Big Mama. My brother-in-law is divorced today. 

 Love requires sacrifice. It requires bearing with unpleasantness and overcoming our own desire for comfort, laziness or  fun for the sake our beloved. Lady Gaga is not singing about cleaning up your spouse's vomit... for the second time that night. Jay Z and Beyonce are not doing power ballads about standing by your child's grave and being strong for your spouse. Nobody is giving Ted Talks about holding on together  when the factory closes or about going from shopping at Macys to shopping at Goodwill when times get hard. Yeah, there is suffering in marriage along with joy. Pretending that doesn't exist is foolish. 

 

Rest in peace, dear lady

 My mother-in-law had ovarian cancer. She had massive surgery and lived with a colostomy bag for 15 years. All of her friends from the chemo ward died. She held on until a new surgeon was able stitch her together in such a way that she no longer needed the bag. I remember how happy she was when she was able to go to the bathroom like a normal person again. My mother-in-law's insides were held together by prayer and pelvic mesh.  She  survived to see her sons married, and to know her grandchildren. She went back to work but eventually her kidneys, damaged by the chemo, began to fail. She fought every day in some form for 23 years. Ovarian cancer is awful and watching what it did to my mother-in-law left me speechless.  

Geska Lima was a beautiful soul, a great lady whom brightened up Catholic Twitter with her wisdom, her prayers and meditations. She fought her ovarian cancer with great courage and when her doctor's finally told her there was no hope she tried alternative treatments. Now she has passed away. May the angels lead her to Paradise. 

Parents beware

 Two days ago I read a Twitter post by a teacher who was concerned that since he will be teaching via Zoom parents will be able to hear what he's telling the kids about sex issues. Parents, if a grown man wants to talk to your kid without you knowing what he's telling them, something funky is going on. 
If a grown man wants to talk to your kid about sex, something funky is going on. If a grown man frets about how to get around you and calls you a "helicopter" or "snow plow" parent because you pay attention to what he's trying to do then you have a problem. Parents beware and keep your guard up. Any teacher who wants you to leave the room in your own home needs to be challenged and corrected. 

None of this kind of thing is new. Bad people go where the kids are and there have always been teachers who overstepped their bounds. Decades ago, my mother got a phone call from her oldest brother, Jr. He was 17 then and triumphantly told her that "they" (parents) had finally got one of their teachers. The teacher was a pervert who had flirted with and seduced students. When the principal, school board and most importantly, the parents found out he was run out of town and out of the county. 

Go read the Little House on the Prairie series or watch an old movie, particularly an old Western. Teachers were held to a very high standard up until the 60s. Parents demanded that teachers to be as respectable as a nun and before the advent of teacher's unions, teachers got fired and lost their license to teach if there was proof of inappropriate behavior. Why were parents so strict? Because the man or woman who has custody of your child's mind for hours has a powerful impact that can shape or warp them for the rest of their lives. 

Is Biden crazy or crazy like a fox?

 

Joe Biden is not a good Catholic and if he ever was, he hasn't been for decades. I've wondered for some time if he isn't a sly trickster as well. When he pawed and sniffed women and girls in public we saw the people  around him get these stunned looks on their faces or they did the 1000 yard stare. Some people shook their heads and said it just Joe being...eccentric. Others were rightfully appalled and thought he was either losing control of his faculties or a narcissistic pervert or both.

Every now and then I wonder if  the old rogue isn't pulling an I Claudius? Emperor Claudius if you remember from the book and the series, had to pretend to be a harmless, half wit so he would be ignored by his immediate family's enemies. The scene where he is crowned and then stuns all the Roman court by suddenly speaking and behaving normally is still one of the most thrilling I've ever seen. 

Is Biden a pitiful figurehead being used by his family, and some shady characters or is he a straight up villain playing his supporters for useful idiots? Hey, it's 2020. Anything short of zombies and dragons would not surprise me one bit. 

 

I saw this gorgeous Last Supper on the Les Femnes blog

See what we've been reduced to

Rocky usually stops in a church on the way home from work to do his holy hour. He was struck by the elaborate directional arrows at this parish and saddened by the closing of the Adoration chapel. 

Be discreet and protect your priest

Do you have a good priest who is not going to call the police on you if you take your mask off at Mass? Great. Don't put his name and parish on social media and don't post photos. You will surely get the priest into trouble with his bishop and you might be the reason why there's no more Mass at your parish. You could also get the priest in trouble with the law. Some states are sending spies to churches to look for violations.  Law enforcement has shown up at churches. Priests and Protestant clergy have been threatened with jail time. Be discreet.  Sensus Fidelium has a sobering video on this topic. 

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• In your charity could you pray for the mother of a friend of mine? She was taken by ambulance to the hospital yesterday. Her doctor would not see her until her COVID test came back negative but by the time it did she was in bad shape.  
  
  
  
  
  
• I've read numerous stories about how Bill Gates's vaccines have damaged women and children in India and at least one African country but his defenders always say this was  just a bad batch of vaccine or that sometimes people have bad reactions and the individual tragedies don't matter in the face of the greater good.  Think about the women and girls who ended up sterilized. What kind of life do they have now? Infertility is considered a curse in many cultures and it's not uncommon for a man to cast aside a wife who can't have children or to take a second wife. A young girl who has been sterilized faces no chance of marriage.  That bad batch of vaccine has doomed her to a life of loneliness, and degradation. Nobody in her village is going to marry her.  If she's lucky she can stay with her family and be a beloved aunt. If she's not lucky she could end up as a prostitute. Knowing this how on earth can people spout those flippant bad batch excuses. 
  
  
  
  
  
• There once was a writer who had a beautiful blog. Her writing was elegant, her vocabulary was obviously that of a highly educated person and her devotional posts were inspiring. Despite all this I was not fond of her. She had that habit of humble bragging, which I cannot stand. Don't call me a worldling because I take a day trip to the lake or shop at  Walmart when you are jetting off to Europe twice a year with  the excuse that you're going on pilgrimage or an "important conference". I stopped reading her. 
  
  
  
  
  
• I refuse to receive Communion in the hand so Rocky has had to ask priests for the Precious Blood for me. So far they've been willing.
  
  
  
  
• Msgr. Bastress who was the pastor at Saint Alphonsus in Baltimore was a kind, patient man. I went to Mass there twice. May he rest in peace. If it wasn't for him many people in more than one state would not have had access to the traditional Mass. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• One sign that the Catholic Church is the only one is that the forces of evil always go after our churches. Nobody cares about the Mormons or the Seven Day Aventists. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Never trust anyone who constantly cracks  pedophilia jokes. They aren't being "edgy," they are telling you what they find fascinating. 

I thought this was a joke

It's not.  

I bet this story won't become national news

Folks we're in trouble. 

Pie Jesu

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon.

• The DC diocese will reopen this weekend. Parishioners may not use the restroom before or during Mass and you have to leave right after.  Most adults should be able to hold themselves for an hour but what about those who have various medical issues? Men of a certain age tend to urinate a lot more than they did in their youth. A few weeks ago we read that if people really need to go they can ask the ushers and then a team will assemble to sanitize the restroom after they leave. That has apparently been dropped. I suspect many people responded that they didn't want to humiliate themselves by having to beg for a restroom and didn't want to open the restroom door to find a grim group at the door waiting for Typhoid Mary to leave. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Things aren't looking too good for our country. The mystic Therese Neuman predicted that America would not be conquered from the outside but would fall from the inside. It doesn't matter that the majority just want to get back to normal and that this current unpleasantness will pass. It only takes a devoted or fanatical ten percent to move a nation. The rest of us will just go along with it. As for the bad times passing I will point out that Communism lasted for 70 plus years in Russia. Everyone who said "This will pass," in 1917 died waiting. It hasn't passed in Cuba and it hasn't passed in China.  

• Monsignor Rossi is not going anywhere. I won't be donating to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception anymore. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After being my Uncle Sonny Boy's guardian until his death my opinion of nursing home staff is very low. After watching videos of nurses and doctors wriggling and gyrating my trust level is shot. Atrocities like this one keep happening and I don't think we will see anybody going to prison. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A friend from work told me a horrible story. She was in a departmental Zoom meeting when her manager steered the conversation away from work to talking about the riots and BLM. Each person in the meeting was "encouraged" to "speak out". My friend was upset and being put on the spot. This was akin to your manager demanding to know how you vote or what your religion is. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I think the country never should have locked down. It was not worth the damage to our economy or to the nation's mental health. People have lost their jobs. If you're over 50, you are going to have a hard time getting a new job that was as good as what you had. Some folks probably aren't going to work full time in their fields ever again. People  have committed suicide. Depression and madness has skyrocketed. Ten years from now people are still going to struggling from the mental fall out. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• My Jesus, mercy!
•  

  
  

  
  

If you've ever mocked a friend or relative who was afraid to go to the hospital during the lock down it's past time to apologize

"It turned out that I was having a coronary, thus the breathlessness. I had to sit in the emergency room until they tested me for the Wuflu. Two hours later they came back and said I was negative, which I already knew. I sat there for 24 hours until they found me a room." 

I just read a comment on Non Veni Pacem  from a woman who had a horrifying experience in the ER and I don't blame anybody who is scared to go to a hospital in these terrible days. You will be alone with no family member to fight for you. The staff will immediately focus on Corona and it will be hours before your actual needs are addressed unless you present in the ER with blood loss or have an ambulance crew to vouch for you. How many people have died over this? We will never know. 

I have not forgotten

Ann Barnhardt calls out the Trad Inc. folks who went crazy back in March calling anybody who wanted to go to Mass a granny killer*, stupid or pious show-offs and now have the nerve like they never thought Corona was a big deal. Miss Barnhardt names no names but I'm thinking about two specific people who got very nasty to anyone who didn't think the Corona virus was akin to the plague. One of them was snappish as a rabid animal at the very idea of people wanting to go outside and even more furious that they dared to express a longing to return to church. This individual was so over the top with hysteria I was almost alarmed. 

*Turns out the grandparent killers were the governors who forced Corona patients into nursing homes

As it turned out, the virus wasn't the worst thing by a long shot

Still not ready to jump on the Pell bandwagon

Back in 2017  and  in 2019, I wrote about Cardinal Pell, the accusations against him and obliquely, one of his defenders. I believe he was innocent of what he was wrongly convicted of but it does not follow that he's a saint or a traditionalist or that he acted appropriately when the stories of child sexual abuse in his diocese reached his desk. We also have to realize that there has been talk about Cardinal Pell for years. It may be all filthy Freemasonic lies,  and Australia may be a horrible place, but please don't act like this has all just popped up overnight. There are men and families who were and remain broken-hearted. Boys were used for sex. People lost their Faith. It went on for decades. Cardinal Pell says he knew nothing about it. I'm glad hes's out of prison but please, don't be ridiculous by comparing him to Cardinal Mindszenty,  Fr. Ciszek or the Apostle Paul in prison.

Oh Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.  Arise Oh Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered. Let them that hate Thee, flee before Thy holy face.

a word from St. Jean Vianney

Yes, my friends, as the life, so the death. Do not hope for a miracle, which God vouchsafes but seldom. If you live in sin, you will die in sin. Many examples prove to us that after an evil life, we cannot expect a happy death. Vianney, St. Jean Marie. Sermons of the Curé of Ars

Is Pope Francis really Catholic?

This is a repost of a question I asked a little while ago. Every time Francis speaks I wonder...

Is Pope Francis really Catholic or is he just a cultural and career-wise Catholic? I'm not trying to be funny and I'm not being sarcastic.  Argentina has a lot of witchcraft and I don't mean silly college girls playing with love spells and candles. I mean the real stuff; the pre-Columbian paganism and folkways mixed with frank Satanism. This is not unique to Argentina or Latin America. Here in America  there are people don't have a problem going to a root doctor (a witch) and still going to church. Someone will point out that Francis is Italian. Well yes, his parents came from Italy but they raised him in Argentina.  The thought about how Francis was raised and what he marinated in as a young man came to me a few years ago when I was watching a nature program of all things. The host was in the country-side in  Argentina and saw a crossroads shrine to a bandit-"saint", The host noted that the villagers were Catholic but also were at ease with something close to voodoo or santeria. I wondered if this doesn't explain part of what is wrong with Francis. 

Remember when he joked that he doesn't go to the doctor instead he goes to the witch? Ever wonder why he's so anti-normal Catholicism and saving souls but seems to love pagans and primitivism? This all came back to me when I read about the pope's latest joke.  My father-in-law used to say that when he was deployed to Turkey he found Istanbul to be quite sophisticated and modern but when he went out to the rest of the country and saw the villages it was like going back centuries. Maybe outside of Buenos Aires it's like that too, to an extent and perhaps, Francis consciously or not,  embraces the old folk ways and the "simple" people  as part of his cultural heritage.

Well, they got Tim Gordon.

Tim Gordon, the older Gordon brother lost his teaching job at a Catholic high school for Tweeting about BLM. I don't like the man. I think I've made that clear in the past. I like his younger brother even less but Gordon has 6 children and his eldest child has serious medical issues. I'm sorry for their sake.

 If a person is acting a fool on company time then okay, fire them. If a person is off work and represents on camera or in print that what he says is the formal or informal policy of his employer, or is approved of by his or her supervisor and that representation is not true, then okay, fire him. However, if you are not on company time while acting a fool, and by that I mean just mouthing off, not committing a crime--- or, making a statement in print or on camera and not mentioning your employer at all, then getting fired is unjust.

The only exception I can think of is when an employee signs a behavior agreement with the employer saying that the employee will not do anything that could cause the company embarrassment or harassment.

An already hostile boss  may get wind of what an employee  said or wrote and may look for ways to get rid of them but unless the employee has been gold bricking, still in the 90 day probation period or called into HR one too many times, the boss  won't have any legal  ammunition for that and the whole thing could lead to a fat lawsuit, even in a Right to Work state.  More likely if a boss was really offended by an employee's statement things at work could get hostile enough to make the employee quit.

I think this is a pretty good example of why we don't need married priests. How many married men hold their tongue or sensibly decline to make that Facebook post because they knew that if they got fired the rent wasn't going to pay itself and the kids have to eat? A priest needs to be ready to move to a new assignment with the speed of the Apostles if need be, remain detached from the world and teach the Faith no matter what. A married priest can't do that and might end up running away from his duties to the Lord's lambs in order to take care of his own.

Now back to Timothy Gordon. If you ever read his Tweets, his books or watch his videos then you know the Gordon boys love a fight and believe  in never backing down to opponents.  I'll bet he had enemies in the teacher's lounge and among the tuition paying parents that he didn't even know about. Apparently  about 100 students, parents and alumni signed an online petition objecting to him.  Gordon will probably find out what really went into the firing decision after talking to sympathetic former co-workers. Possibly this has been brewing for some time and he finally gave his enemies the ammo they needed to strike. It's also possible that threats were made against the school and/or faculty and the school head(s) panicked.  Huge corporations are rushing to pledge allegiance to BLM. If he expected his high school to stand behind him, it was a blunder.

To paraphrase something my  late father-in-law used to say, Gordon's alligator mouth wrote a  check that his Tweety bird home front had to cash. A lot of people are delighted to watch. I am nervous about bigger issue: if Gordon can be fired for what he wrote off company time then the same thing could happen to anybody. Gordon is still holding a good set of cards. He's young and has a law degree. Unless his state  Bar moves against him he could go back to practicing his profession. A Go Fund Me account has been set up for him.  His attacks on the SSPX will get him speaking engagements and sell books. Timothy Gordon will be okay. Jane or Joe Regular Person doesn't have all that to fall back on.

Wait, What? Fr. McGivney died of Corona back in 1890?

Dear Lord. These people never stop with the hype. Now they're claiming Fr. Michael McGivney died of Corona in 1890.  Up until a few days ago all biographies of Fr. McGivney said he died of pneumonia.
Yes, a cold can turn to pneumonia and yes there was a great deal of sickness in his town in 1890. He may have caught his infection from tending to parishioners  but there are more than one way to acquire it. Why try to make Venerable Fr. McGiveney cool by pinning Coronavirus on him? The Mormons try to baptize the dead to bring them into the Mormon cult. By using such a cheap tactic the promoters of Father's canonization cause look just like the Later Day "saints". I know the Knights want him to be canonized but by dropping the Corona  catch phrase to jazz up his cause is insulting to him and to the already degraded canonization process.

Fr. McGiveney, pray for us

A painful moment

I was listening to a bush craft skills video yesterday in which an old Baptist in his canoe spoke about how his faith in Jesus is the key to his not living in fear in the face of Corona. I felt ashamed because I have not heard a single American bishop speak as boldly as that old man.

Nightmare in the nursing homes

You may have seen the sickening video of a young man attacking residents of a Michigan nursing home. I won't post it here because it upset me too much. He's  been arrested but the most shocking thing about this story is that he's reportedly mentally ill. (he looks more like he has fetal alcohol syndrome to me), and has was diagnosed as being infected with Corona virus. Why, why, why is a mentally ill young person in a nursing home? Why was an extremely violent young man allowed to roam unimpeded in a nursing home?


Some people had said that Democrats seeded nursing homes with Corona because elders vote Republican. That doesn't make sense. I've stood in line to vote and saw residents from a near by nursing home being brought in on walkers, canes, and wheelchairs. To my astonishment I saw a poor old man who's eyes were glassy and his mouth was slightly agape. If I'd asked him what he had for breakfast that morning I do not believe that he could have answered me. I watched the nurse wheel him up to the voting both and pull the curtain. I'm convinced the nurse did his voting for him.


Nobody who is in the last stages of dementia, or bedridden or dying is voting and old Democrats vote Democrat to the day they die anyway. So what really happened? Were the elderly deliberately targeted to boost the death numbers? Who profited by every death? There must be a financial incentive. Pray for your family members in the nursing home. The Health Secretary of Pennsylvania pulled his mother from nursing home and took her to safety. If you go your loved one's nursing home and demand they give your daddy right now, you'll probably be arrested. Since you can't even visit and notice things your family members are totally without any defense and are at the "mercy" of forces you can't constrain, or in some states, even sue one day. 

Mass in a Mask

Northern Virginians were allowed to go back to Mass on May 29. Rocky and I went to St. Thomas Moore Cathedral. It was unpleasant. Sitting with my mask on from the time we went in for confession to the end of Mass actually made me dizzy. I kept having to take the mask off and ignored anyone who decided to look at me instead of the altar. Air conditioning really would have helped. Catholics in DC and the Arlington diocese are still dispensed from Mass indefinitely and I may take advantage of that because frankly I felt  physically worse during Mass than I have during this entire Corona crap nightmare.

another doubtful beatification?

I've seen books about Marthe Robin in Catholic bookstores but never paid much attention. Apparently she's up for beatification and some people have doubts. 

The Church already has some embarrassing beatifications and canonizations from the past 30 years so God willing if this woman was a fake it will be exposed.

A wild memory and random thoughts on a beautiful Saturday afternoon

• What the heck is going on with Michael Voris's hair? When did it become platinum blonde and why does it look like JFK Jr.'s hair when he was a toddler?
  
• When I was 13, my father died. The next month I was walking to school and saw a man dressed in a shiny white suit and shoes. He was standing at the bus stop and looked at me with a kind smile. He seemed to glow.  I immediately thought it was the angel of death. My state of mind in that terrible time was that if my father could die then anything was possible. I walked toward him and then to my surprise, past him. I got to the corner and looked back. He was gone. Later I mentioned the episode to my mother. She told me that the man was in white probably because it was Spring and he just felt like busting out in his white suit. He smiled, she explained because he was probably a pleasant man who saw a pleasant and wholesome sight: a nice looking child in a Catholic school uniform going to school. She also pointed out that the glowing effect I saw was just the sun on all that white polyester. She went on to explain further that he was gone when I looked back because he was at a bus stop. The bus must have come and gone and I just didn't notice because I was so stunned. 
  I responded,"Oh! You're right," and then told her that I was still proud of myself because I didn't cry or try to run but went straight to my destiny like a grown person should. My poor mother sat down and tried to say something wise. Instead she just hugged me and said, "Oh baby." I imagine that some days she must have felt like lion tamer with a particularly wild cat.
  
  
• I don't understand the whole British NHS cult thing. They've been told to stay away from the hospital and hide at home in isolation to protect the NHS and not cause the doctors and nurses to be overwhelmed with unimportant cases while battling Corona. But isn't the purpose of a national health service to serve the people? If they aren't taking care of the sick then what the heck are they getting paid for?
  
  
  
• My dad used to say that one day the scientists were going to cook up something in the lab that would kill us all. I'd always laugh at his joke but I understood that he was telling me, through humor that Dr. So&So can be a crook or fanatic or wrong just like anyone else and that I should worship nobody but God.
• Joe Biden says that any black person who does not vote for him is not black. So I guess the whole Civil War thing never happened and Joe actually has pride of ownership over black people's votes if not their bodies. I'm reminded of the Louisiana Democrat who boasted and was correct that the only way he'd lose his race would be if he got caught with a live boy or a dead girl in his bed. Joe was incredibly insulting and he's been given a pass by the media because he's the Democrat.
• My old parish is having communion services. My current parish is sticking to You Tube Mass. Rocky wants no part of either choice.
  
• Dear bishops and clergy of Minnesota, the worst the governor can do to you is arrest you. Fr. Kowalski, pray for us.

I'm wearied to my back teeth by Father Z

Once upon a time in the 60s an archbishop looked at a parish and decided that the church wasn't being used enough. Without telling the parishioners or the parish priest he announced that he was giving the property to the federal government. The church and school would be torn down and turned into public housing. The parishioners didn't take this lying down. Eventually protesters surrounded the archbishop's limousine  and screamed, "Give us our church back you son of a bitch!" The archbishop had been accustomed to adulation for most of his career and was so shocked that he had his driver leave the area. He backed down and resigned later that year. The archbishop was Fulton Sheen.

I'm not saying I approve of the Rochester folks' language but the concept of reminding a bishop that he works for God and is supposed to care for his people and not act like Simon Legree and the slaves, is not new.

In the present day Bishop Stika of Tennessee has told his people that they can only have Communion in the hand and has Tweeted that anyone who creates a scene will be kicked out. He has also Tweeted that angry Catholics have called his office and been insulting. He even accuses people of being mean and threatening to the elderly lady answering the phone at his office. Bishop Stika has said some wild things in the past. He's danced on the razor's edge of heresy and fell over on occasion.

So considering the source of the accusation why does Father Z. trust  with no reservation what Bishop Stika says and just lambastes  Catholics as being selfish, cruel jackasses. Father Z has disappointed me so many times that I just stopped reading his blog years ago. His great strength is  cooking posts, travelogues, jokes and cozy-come-sit-by-fire-and-bring-your-drink tales and that's okay but it wasn't enough to keep my attention. "Brick by brick" may have been a decent strategy when JPII was alive and even when Benedict was timidly reigning but it stinks like five day old fish now.

 I understand that he believes that traditional Catholics should behave like the French Resistance in WWII : smile, be pleasant, speak softly and don't attract hostile attention so you can secretly act. He'll never stand openly. He'll always smack the sheep around if they get out of line and he'll always encourage us to grin and be loudly thankful when a bishop allows a traditional Mass in the worse neighborhood in his diocese.

 I'm tired of traditional priests constantly putting traditional Catholics down. I'm tired of feeling like   most of the "leaders" of Trad Inc. are really running a managed opposition campaign.

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us

• Church Militant TV started out as Real Catholic TV. Now its become something of a  folie a deux.
  
  
• I'm sick of the word "grooming." A grown man who pays lavish attention, buys gifts and seduces a young girl or boy and then sells them to other grown men for money is just a plain ole nasty vicious pimp.  Primly saying "grooming" is like spraying lavender water in a stall that hasn't been mucked out in ages. A grown man who seduces an underage girl and calls her his secret girl friend and loses interest in her once she's 18 is just a pervert. Let's not sugar coat these people.
  
  
  
• Is Pope Francis really Catholic or is he just a cultural and career-wise Catholic? I'm not trying to be funny and I'm not being sarcastic. Argentina has a lot of witchcraft and I don't mean silly college girls playing with love spells and candles. I mean the real stuff; the pre-Columbian paganism and folkways mixed with frank Satanism. This is not unique to Argentina or Latin America. Here in America  there are people don't have a problem going to a root doctor (a witch) and still going to church.  The thought about how Francis was raised and what he marinated in as a young man came to me a few years ago when I was watching a nature program of all things. The host was in the country-side in  Argentina and saw a crossroads shrine to a bandit-"saint", The host noted that the villagers were Catholic but also were at ease with something close to voodoo or santeria. I wondered if this doesn't explain part of what is wrong with Francis.
  
  Remember when he joked that he doesn't go to the doctor instead he goes to the witch? Ever wonder why he's so anti-normal Catholicism and saving souls but seems to love pagans and primitivism? This all came back to me when I read about the pope's latest joke.  My father-in-law used to say that when he was deployed to Turkey he found Istanbul to be quite sophisticated and modern but when he went out to the rest of the country and saw the villages it was like going back centuries. Maybe outside of Buenos Aires it's like that too, to an extent and perhaps, Francis consciously or not,  embraces the old folk ways and the "simple" people  as part of his cultural heritage.
  
  
  
  
•  Hey bishop of Kansas do you have anything to say about this? After May 6, people going to church will be required to give their names and contact information. The church is apparently required to also take note of when the people arrive and leave. 

Pray hard for your folks in the nursing home

If you have a loved one in a nursing home you already know that no matter how expensive the place is you need to keep a sharp eye out. Now  family members can't visit and that is extremely dangerous. God forbid that it should come to that but if your loved one dies during this lock down you should not blindly accept what the nursing home staff tells you and if you can afford it, push for an independent autopsy and see if your lawyer can get the medical records. New York and Massachusetts  and about four or five others  have issued executive orders protecting nursing homes from civil liability if a resident is sickened or dies from Corona. So you know what that means? Lets say Aunt Dagmar had an infection from her bed sores or your Uncle Hezikiah got pneumonia because his LPNs and RNs just thought he had a lingering cold and treated it as such until his lung collapsed. All they have to do is say it was the Corona virus and someone could be scot free.

random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• One thing about being in your 50s that is in turns both disconcerting and delightful is seeing the same fad or crisis again that you saw earlier in your life. Usually it's just clothing styles or music or a 21 year thinking his generation is the first to discover the existence of fornication.  Here's a post from the past....
  
  
  Remember how "experts" told us to calm down about Pope Francis because he doesn't care about liturgy? Well, the pope has ordered a review of the Mass translation we currently use. Some people are upset. I am not. Constant change in the Novus Ordo Mass is not a bug, it is a feature. Every few years there will be something new and damn the complainers. That's just the way it is. Now, what if the New, New, New Mass comes with rubrics that are so heretical that they might as well be Lutheran with a dash of voodoo and a side a Pentecostalism, will regular lay Catholics do? For the most part, nothing.The folks who grumble will be told to shut up and they will. Some people will stop going to Mass, either completely or will be C&E and Ash Wednesday Catholics. Others who can do so, will go to the Eastern rites parishes or go Orthodox. A few, very few will go to a Christ the King parish or to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter for as long as they exist. An even tinier number will head to the Anglican rite churches or to the SSPX mission chapel. 
   UPDATE: Now Francis is looking at the TLM. People are saying calm down. It's just a survey or they're saying calm down, the FSSP and ICKSP won't be affected it's only the diocesan TLMs that might be in danger--- as if the FSSP and ICKSP are so numerous that they are an option for most of us.
  
  
  
• 
  

  
  

  dymphna wilson@dymphnaw
  For work I've read many dr. discipline rulings & it's amazing how many med personnel are stealing from the pharmacy or drunk on duty. They do an important job. Some do it magnificently. Some do it badly. We pay them to do this job. They are not gods. The above Tweet was in response to a blasphemous photo that I will not post here taken by medical personnel to cheer themselves and us (?) up. Don't worship your doctor. Give no matter the adoration due to Our Savior alone.
• Please read this post by Mary Ann at the Les Femmes blog. I will say this in a much less gentle or elegant way. The Gordon brothers have a book to flog and apparently two more have are being written or under contract. They need publicity. As for Michael Voris, well I've been seeing Church Militant e-mails just about every day asking me to sign up. I've blocked them. If you love the TLM then you should thank the SSPX and Archbishop Lefebrevre. Without them the FSSP and ICKSP would not exist and those of us to go to a diocesan allowed TLM would not have that either. Predators are everywhere and as Ann Barnhardt has pointed out last year they've even crept into traditional chapels which is why Catholics need to keep their eyes open for off behavior. There is no safe place. Fight like Hell to keep predators away and go to the police when you think they've gotten in.
• Have you noticed that as far as the media is concerned Death seems to have taken a holiday? It's like the Grim Reapers is sitting on a lounge chair somewhere and left Corona in charge. Is anybody dying of cancer anymore? Is no-one tripping, falling and cracking their head open anymore? No fatal asthma, sudden infant death or epilepsy attacks? The only thing we hear about is Corona. The dead from all other conditions including despair induced suicide are no less dead nor are they less mourned.
• I just made Paula Deen's Chicken and Rice casserole but there was no way I was making the sauce from scratch. I went with my usual Campbell's Cream of Mushroom. Rocky seems to really like it.

St. Dominic, pray for us

random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• I need to get to a hair salon. I look like a little witch and Rocky is just waiting for someone at work to say something about his hair. I'm really worried about Rocky's barber. He's a friend and he put everything into his little barbershop. He's not made any money since the shut down and unless he has massive savings I don't see how he can hang on until June.
  
  
  
  
• Sometimes I read Louie Verrechio and go "Louie, Louie, are you EVER happy?," and sometimes I can only curtsy, and mutter, "Lou's right again." 

• Last week Rocky and I went to our old parish and were able to go to Confession. We were both so grateful. 

• Please remember that the average Catholic in America and indeed the world, does not know who the Gordon Boys, Taylor Marshall, Patrick Coffin, Dan Burke or even Scott Hahn are and that's not a bad thing.
• 
  
  
  
• 
  

• 1 O sons and daughters of the King,
  whom heavenly hosts in glory sing,
  today the grave has lost its sting.
  Alleluia! 
  2 That Easter morn at break of day,
  the faithful women went their way
  to seek the tomb where Jesus lay.
  Alleluia! 
  3 An angel clad in white they see,
  who sat and spoke unto the three,
  "Your Lord has gone to Galilee."
  Alleluia! 
  4 When Thomas first the tidings heard
  that some had seen the risen Lord,
  he doubted the disciples' word.
  Lord, have mercy! 
  5 At night the apostles met in fear;
  among them came their Master dear
  and said, "My peace be with you here."
  Alleluia! 
  6 "My pierced side, O Thomas, see,
  and look upon my hands, my feet;
  not faithless but believing be."
  Alleluia! 
  7 No longer Thomas then denied;
  he saw the feet, the hands, the side.
  "You are my Lord and God!" he cried.
  Alleluia! 
  8 How blest are they who have not seen
  and yet whose faith has constant been,
  for they eternal life shall win.
  Alleluia! 
  Final Ending:
  Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! 

In your charity could you please pray for my cousin?

One my mother's cousins  has died in her nursing home. There are some irregularities in what the nursing home staff told her daughter and what the family knows to be true. I can't go into further detail but the family has filed a complaint.  There was no funeral and only two people were  allowed to follow the hearse to the cemetery. They were forbidden to leave the car.

If you have a loved one in a nursing home you already know that you need to be vigilant and trust the staff no further than you can throw them on a good day but you need to be even more on guard now. Many neglect cases are going to be swept under the rug as virus cases if you can't afford to have an independent autopsy done. Lord have mercy.

Resurrection

Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom  

If any be a devout lover of God, let him partake with gladness from this fair and radiant feast. If any be a faithful servant, let him enter rejoicing into the joy of his Lord. If any have wearied himself with fasting, let him now enjoy his reward.
If any have labored from the first hour, let him receive today his rightful due. If any have come after the third, let him celebrate the feast with thankfulness. If any have come after the sixth, let him not be in doubt, for he will suffer no loss. If any have delayed until the ninth, let him not hesitate but draw near. If any have arrived only at the eleventh, let him not be afraid because he comes so late. For the Master is generous and accepts the last even as the first. He gives rest to him who comes at the eleventh hour in the same was as him who has labored from the first. He accepts the deed, and commends the intention.
Enter then, all of you, into the joy of our Lord. First and last, receive alike your reward. Rich and poor, dance together. You who fasted and you who have not fasted, rejoice together. The table is fully laden: let all enjoy it. The calf is fatted: let none go away hungry. Let none lament his poverty; for the universal Kingdom is revealed. Let none bewail his transgressions; for the light of forgiveness has risen from the tomb. Let none fear death; for death of the Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed death by undergoing death. He has despoiled hell by descending into hell. He vexed it even as it tasted of His flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he cried: Hell was filled with bitterness when it met Thee face to face below; Hell is angered, for it was brought to nothing; Hell is angered, for it was mocked; Hell is angered, for it was overthrown; Hell is angered, for it was put in chains. Hell received a body, and encountered God. It received earth, and confronted heaven.

O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory?

Christ is risen! And you, O death, are annihilated! Christ is risen! And the evil ones are cast down! Christ is risen! And the angels rejoice! Christ is risen! And life is liberated! Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power, now and forever, and from all ages to all ages.

 Amen!

Holy Saturday

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

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son.
The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: 'My Lord be with you all.' And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.

‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.

‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.

'See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.

`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

‘But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.

"The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages."

A reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

Good Friday

Good Friday

St. Francis de Sales in Benedict, Maryland -- they have the best local live Mass

Rules for Retrogrades

On the occasions when I have watched a Gordon brothers video my first thought is always that they must have been the cutest little wolf cubs when they were children. That youthful charm has worn off because my second thought after watching them for a few minutes is that I really don't care for these guys. However, personality quirks doesn't mean they can't write. History is full of authors who were great in print and jerks in person. With that in mind I tried to put their online personas to the side and just read the book and judge it solely on its merits. I don't think I succeeded on that but here are my impressions.

First, they identify what a retrograde is. I'll quote them directly:

In the words of Shakespeare, a retrograde is one of God’s spies. [Who strives to restore]

• the Old Order of moral and sexual decency,
• classical masculinity,
• national sovereignty and national borders,
• faith and hope and charity,
• goodness and beauty and truth,
• Christian civic liberty,
• and most importantly, the social kingship of Christ.   

There are 40 rules and I won't go over each one individually. The first 12 are common sense and if you were raised in a two parent Catholic or at least nominally Christian home you already know them. The book didn't get interesting to me until rule 13 where they write about how to deal with mil-mods and mod-cons. This is the best and clearest part of the book.  Mod-cons are conservatives, and are usually nice people who can be reasoned with but left to their own devices they will "be the better man," and "lose with grace", to radicals. If they aren't very nice they'll  make a separate peace with the radicals by living their values quietly but  never standing up  for anything or they make a good living in loudly talking a good game but doing nothing. 

The militant mod is a slippery character who lives an outwardly respectable life. He would never take his kid to a drag show at the library but is privately supportive of the whole thing. He also despises the retrograde as much or more than the radical and will sell you out if he can hang with the cool kids. Consequently, once identified the militant mod is best left alone.

Some of the rules about the retrograde's personal affairs: get married young and have a family. Avoid feminism. No matter how you sugar coat it or try to Christianize it,  feminism is the worship of woman as god and that is not good. Another rule is to never back down when given bad spiritual advice from Boomers. Others are to reject blind  optimism and expecting the outrage of the day to finally awaken the American public.

There is a group of rules about how to engage with the radical. The best of them is to remain cool when the radical tries to personalize the general. Don't let this individual re-frame your argument with an appeal to emotion. Always speak the truth and don't allow the radical to tell you that you can not express an opinion about anything that is outside your race or class.

The smallest number of rules are about how to treat fellow retrogrades and this might be the topic the Gordon boys are the most passionate about. They argue that one should never stand silent when a fellow retrograde is attacked. Never launch a sneak attack on a fellow retrograde and only publicly correct a member of the fellowship in public unless he or she has sinned in public.

The book is short but really could have been shorter. It feels like a padded essay. Some of the rules could have been combined and it has five other flaws that ruin it for me.

First, the Gordons err in hanging too much of their argument on Thomas Jefferson's study of Saints Robert Bellarmine's and Thomas Aquinas' writings. Unlike Washington, there's not even a rumor that  he showed a scrap of  sympathy or understanding of Catholicism.

Second, Their  rejection of boycotts seems to be a lazy way of excusing giving money to Starbucks and Disney and Netflix because not doing so doesn't affect the company's bottom line.

Third, the Gordons  wallow in California teenager slang. That would be forgivable if they were precocious teens but one of them and I think it's the younger Gordon, is 39. If you've ever watched their videos and rolled your  eyes be warned: they way they talk is the way they write. They  remind me of a 1980s Valley Girl who found a dictionary.

Fourth, they don't have anything to say about the lay grifters and opportunists who make their money off the Faith but as we've seen in recent days, don't really believe any of what they push to their donors and customers.

Finally, they overdo the he-man act and bring to mind  the old saying: If you have to keep  telling everyone that you are a lady then you probably aren't.

I found myself having to frequently put the book down because this was all so irritating.

So do I think you should buy the book or run screaming from it? Neither. It's not absolutely horrible but it's not worth the $18.87, I paid. If  you can't get it from the library or borrow it from someone, then buy it used or  preferably at a discount. If this book makes enough of a stir it might inspire someone with greater style and Catholic scholarship to take a crack at the subject matter. The idea of Rules for Retrogrades is good. This execution needs work.