St. Charles Borromeo

Want to ruin your marriage?

• Disrespect  your husband in public. He may love you so much that you can get away with it for a long time, but it will come back to bite you.   I once watched a serious Catholic woman discuss her sex life. She was talking about NFP. Her husband sat next to her with this frozen look on his face like someone has just shot off a gun next to his ear. That woman may know about NFP but she knows nothing about honoring her husband and keeping private things private. I'll give you a completely secular example. A singer appeared at a ball in a sheer dress and no underwear this year. Her husband was with her. He didn't look happy. In fact, he had the same thousand yard stare on his face that the NFP husband did.  Both men were made to look like fools in public. Don't be like that. 

• Make your husband the family disciplinarian with you as the cool parent who always take the kid's side . A family sat in front of me at Mass and I saw that the daughter was wearing sheer, gray leggings with sequins. Her bikini  underwear showed though. She wore a small tee shirt that reached her waist. The last time I saw a female dressed like that was when I noticed one of the strippers headed to work at the strip joint across the street from where I work last Thursday. The father looked uncomfortable. . The daughter's body language was apologetic. Finally the father reached over and hugged her and the drama was over. The mother looked happy but she's going to pay that later, and it will come either from the husband or the daughter who now knows what she can get away with.
  
  
  
• Read Pinterest and woman tubmlrs everyday and take it as your rule of life. Except for a few Catholic and oddly enough, most of the Mormon ones those sources are man-hating, envy and depression inducing, and worldly in the extreme. Get that stuff in your head and you'll become a real pill.
  
• Become the parish busy body. Remember Mrs. Jellyby? Don't be her. 

Our Lady of the Chains

Whenever Rocky and I go to Baltimore (no, we won't be going back this Summer) we try to stop at either St. Alphonsus or the St. Jude Shrine.  The shrine has a staute of Our Lady and the Child Jesus holding a long length of chains. This devotion was brought to Baltimore by Sicilian immigrants.

Novena to Our Lady of the Chains

O Blessed Lady of the Chain, sweet hope, eternal comfort of those who with confidence call upon you; prostrate at your feet, I profess my misery and nothingness. You who are the Queen of Heaven and earth, the Mother of Our Divine Savior, O you who are so powerful before the throne of God, please obtain for me this favor which I need so much.

May the many favors and graces which you obtain daily from Jesus for those who invoke you under the title of Mother of the Chain, encourage me to have recourse to you and present to your maternal heart all my afflictions. O powerful Virgin, break the chains of sin which hold me fast. Destroy the snares of my spiritual and temporal enemies, chain me close to you and to Jesus with a lively faith, a firm hope, and a burning charity.

Encircle me with your chains and thus unite me to your heart. United in such a way to you and to Jesus, I will fear nothing. There will be no doubt of my eternal salvation, no fear of not being granted all the temporal and spiritual blessings I need to lead a devout life.

Since I am in need of help in this present affliction, O loving Mother, I have recourse to you with childlike faith, and thus I hope to obtain the favor I am now asking.

[Here make your petition]

I am sure that you will grant me my request with that same love with which you did grant the request of the three prisoners. I am confident you will grant this favor through your merits and the merits of your Divine Son and allow me to return soon to render to you the homage of my praises and grateful thanksgivings.

Amen

(Hail Holy Queen ...)

Random thoughts and how we got here

When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is…in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.
----Theodore Dalrymple





When my mother was girl, you had to go find the freak show. Sometimes that meant going into the tent that said "adults only"  at the carnival or  getting in to your truck and going in secret three counties over to a shack in the woods . When I was a girl it meant going to red light district downtown. By the time I was in college you could comfortably go to the back room of the video store and find the freak show. Now, it's on our computers and in the check out line at the grocery store. Not only can you not avoid it but since the freaks are feted, petted and adored you will lose your job, your business or your "friends" if you say in the mildest terms that you don't want to stand and cheer. 




I have two problems with the Benedict Option and "podding". First, is a practical consideration. If you are all in one place it makes it easy for the bad guys. Second, the whole thing seems like it could turn cultish in a second. 



I was listening to a good, solid, bread and butter priest who mentioned in passing that he sees a lot of disrespect these days. He wasn't talking about heretics, or C&E Catholics, He meant people who consider themselves good Catholics. Are you the parish busybody? Are you an inadvertent stalker? You may mean well but following your priest around the Internet is a bit much....  Are you on the liturgy committee (get off now!) and have no problem instructing the priest how you want him to celebrate Mass?  Have you started acting like your "ministry" is the most important thing in the parish?  Do you corner the priest after Mass and spend 20 minutes lecturing him while everybody stands around waiting for you to leave? Have you ever tried to start a parish group without the priest's permission or even though he said "no"? A lot of people were burned by bad priests. That does not give you the right to make every priest miserable. 

Prayer

In this painting an Italian girl is using a chair like a kneeler. I used to do that when I was a kid. One of these days I'd like to own a prie dieu. 

The mills of God grind slowly on personal and a national level.

I was reading a rant by a man who I'm guessing is in his 60s, who has lived a sinful life and won't go to church. He's disgusted by the situation we find our ourselves in politically and morally in this country. Suddenly it came to me, and I didn't write a comment because it would've caused a com-box fight and I don't get into those; that this guy is part of the problem. The nice, regular folks who have been married two or three times without shame or the slightest societal rebuke, the people who lived with their lovers without the pretense of a civil marriage, the ones who left their kids behind in order to find themselves, the millions who had Playboy on the coffee table  and spent most of their weekends in the  70s and 80s in various bars opened the door to what we have today. Yeah, the kids are ugly but when you look at what produced them you suddenly see why.

Though the mills of God grind slowly;

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience He stands waiting,

With exactness grinds He all.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Our Lady of the Forsaken

I love how Our Lady is leaning forward to listen to what Her Divine Son is saying.

One of my favorite Holy Family paintings

Jesus is the Door---Stay in the sheepfold

A sheepfold

John 10:1-10.
At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees, Amen, amen, I say to you, he who enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is shepherd of the sheep. To this man the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them forth. And when he has let out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. But a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. This parable Jesus spike to them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them. Again, therefore, Jesus said to them, Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever have come are thieves and robbers; but the sheep have not heard them. I am the door. If anyone enter by Me he shall be safe, and shall go in and out, and shall find pastures. The thief comes only to steal, and slay, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

Pentecost Sequence from Mass today

Sequentia 

Holy Spirit! Lord of light!

From Thy clear celestial height,

Thy pure, beaming radiance give:

Come, Thou, Father of the poor!

Come, with treasures which endure!

Come, Thou light of all that live!

Thou of all consolers best,

Visiting the troubled breast,

Dost refreshing peace bestow:

Thou in toil art comfort sweet;

Pleasant coolness in the heat;

Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal! Light divine!

Visit Thou these hearts of Thine,

And our inmost being fill.

If Thou take Thy grace away,

Nothing pure in man will stay;

All his good is turn’d to ill.

Heal our wounds - our strength renew;

On our dryness pour Thy dew;

Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;

Melt the frozen, warm the chill;

Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on those who evermore

Thee confess and Thee adore,

In Thy sevenfold gifts descend.

Give them comfort when they die;

Give them life with Thee on high;

Give them joys which never end.

Amen. Alleluia.

a hospital for souls

In this painting by Vincente Gonzalez a mother as brought her daughter to the physician/pharmacist monk. As the sly title tells us, the daughter's melancholy isn't physical but has do with missing her boyfriend.  The wise monk probably realizes this but is gentle and patient.

Is your entertainment your god?

A Protestant (?) blogger asked the question of whether it's time for Christians to stop watching Game of Thrones. On his blog the responses have been mild or attempted to change the subject. The comments on sites where his post has been discussed  have been spicier, along the lines of "It's just fiction. It's great writing. What's the matter with you, are you some kind of art hating Philistine?"   

I'm reminded of a good priest last year who gave a lecture on The Lord of the Rings and said there are some problems with it. Grown people had fits and let's not forget the whole Harry Potter thing. If a Catholic layperson, priest or even, then Cardinal Ratzinger said anything against the J. K. Rowling books people got insulting and switched parishes, or stated that the critic just didn't know what they were talking about.  The editors of Lifesite News wrote back in 2007, that the most vicious and angry e-mail they receive comes from homosexual activists, abortion people and Harry Potter fans. Wow, that's pathetic. Mess with their entertainment and even self identified devout Catholics get huffy. I can't understand how people can get so worked up over a mere amusement. Obviously, a lot of us have turned our favorite TV show, or books into our gods.

Sleepers awake

People are getting upset over a new program that is going to be on ABC. I won't name it but Adrienne's Catholic Corner sums it up nicely. The show sounds miserable but I bet it will be a hit. ABC is owned by Disney. Disney is not your friend, parents. And Conservatives, Fox is not  your friend either. They've green lighted a series called Lucifer. It's about....you guessed it.....the Prince of this World who is bored in Hell and decides to earth to solve crimes. Yep. A show where Satan is the hero. We have come to this. Folks it's time to wake up and pay attention. The people who run the media are not only not on our side, they're actively evil. I'm not saying get rid of your TV but what are you watching and who are you enriching?

St. Michael the Archangel, 

defend us in battle. 
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. 
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, 
and do thou, 
O Prince of the heavenly hosts, 
by the power of God, 
thrust into hell Satan, 
and all the evil spirits, 
who prowl about the world 
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen..

Random thoughts

Chinese Catholics at Mass.

• If you think about all the people Raul Castro has killed it's astonishing to see him standing next to the pope.
  
• Maureen Mullarkey has a wonderful essay on the work of a Chinese photographer  following China's Catholics. When the day comes I hope American Catholics will be as brave and as faithful.
  
  
  
• One thing I've noticed after years of reading Catholic blogs is that parent bloggers have toned down giving out embarrassing personal details about their teen-aged and young adult children. This is very good. Nobody, but especially HR departments and co-workers need to know about your daughter's reproductive cycle or the drug problem your son used to have.
  
  
• Pornography is a means of controlling masses of people. If you're besotted with smut whether it's print photos, on the Internet or in badly written "romance" books, you're too stupefied to pay attention to what's really going on around you. Popular culture is part of this. The people who are obsessed with celebrities are useless when it comes time to actually think.

• "You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization — including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility, and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain — without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large."      
  Thomas Sowell (author, economist and one of my heroes since I was a girl in high school)
  
  
  
•  Hilary White wrote this back in 2007 and I still think about it occasionally even after all this time.
  
  
• My uncle is back on the ventilator. He's awake, interested in people in his room and is trying to talk but my mother and I have come to the conclusion that he's never going to fully recover. 

Gaurdian angel

The Bishop Finn affair is sad but he is not the real victim, okay?

Over at One Peter Five they  came out strongly in defense of Bishop Finn. They feel and they’re hanging onto that feeling like a dog with a bone, that the bishop had to step down not because he failed to call the police but because the forces of evil were after him anyway. Several readers objected to that idea and the comment box turned into a battlefield. Since the argument can’t be won and the whole situation is depressing,  1P5 doesn’t want to talk about it anymore .

Well now. I like Steve Skojec  and I like reading most of the writers on 1P5 but I can’t follow the reasoning here.  I don’t doubt that some bad people went after Bishop Finn because they prefer  the diocese to be something like an Episcopalian/Unitarian/New Age mix but  in trying to quietly fix Fr. Ratigan, the bishop handed his enemies an golden opportunity. My late father in law, Big Daddy used to say, “Everybody pees in the pool some time but that boy did it from the diving board.” This isn’t about “our guy” and “their guys”. This isn't about liberals, conservatives or traditionalists. This is about the bishop's legal and spiritual duty to his flock.

The excuse that the bishop was trying to save Fr. Ratigan’s priesthood because he was under the impression that the problem was “only” pornography is not acceptable especially for a man who wrote "Blessed Are the Pure in Heart - A Pastoral Letter on the Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography."  Can you see St. Jean Vianney saying, “It’s only pornography?” Can you see St. Anthony Mary Claret or St. Padre Pio  tolerating a fellow priest who had pornographic interests? Can you in your wildest imagination see St. Thomas Becket, the man who excommunicated his king and friend saying  “only pornography”? I cannot.

Pray for Bishop Finn, pray for Fr. Ratigan and if you have tears to shed, let them fall for the little girls who were violated by Fr. Ratigan. 

Christ is victorious! Christ reigns! Christ commands!

Really, really bad Catholic art

 Ah the '70s, like toe nail fungus, syphilis in certain populations, a movie serial killer, and crab grass it just won't die. This hideous style of art was everywhere when I was a child and a teenager and someone in the Vatican seems to really like it.  The official logo of the vaunted Year of Mercy brought back memories of the ugliest missals ever published. I now wonder if this stuff was so popular because it made kids feel confident that they could draw something better and I have this vague memory of sitting in class and thinking that everybody in these drawings looked like a science experiment gone bad.

Michael Coren flies the coop

Never, never, never trust a big, splashy convert who is has a book to sell and speaking engagements to hawk.

So you think moving to a little town and growing your own tomatoes is the Benedict option?

Oh please! As my grandmother would say, "Lawd, ha'mercy!" I'm certain that the people babbling about "the Benedictine option" have no idea of what they speak.