How to Survive Midnight Mass as a Visitor

1. Feed the kids. Make the little one's take a nap. Don't expect a tired toddler who's off his schedule to act like a cherub. Provide them with liquid and then take them all to the bathroom before Mass.
   
2. Get to Mass early. Sit down. Do not go into the narthex  and socialize or your spot on the pew won't be there when you get back.
   
3. If you have climb over people in the pews the saints will let it go but the regular ones will give you the stink eye.
   
4. No. Nobody wants to scoot over so you can fit in if you arrive late. Sorry.
   
5. EWTN does commentary throughout for big TV Masses. You don't need to. If you need to explain to your brother-in-law who has come to Mass for the first time, do so  quietly.
   
6. Unless it is a service dog do not bring your pet to Mass. I know he's cute and he probably is better behaved than most of the kids but no, that's not right.
   
   
7. If your teenager demands to come to Mass in a strapless dress that comes down to her thigh, yes people are going to look.
   
   
8. If your teenager is angry and behaves rudely don't spend the entire Mass angrily hissing at her or you'll become bigger distraction than you realize-- yes I have seen this.
   
   
9. Remember, real life is not a Hallmark movie. Smell the incense. Calm down. Close your eyes. Rejoice, for Christ has come. 

The Nativity

Do you STILL have your Netflix account?

Why? Can't you give up one amusement for the Lord? 

At prayer

random thoughts on Saturday afternoon

• I really wasn't enthusiastic about making Archbishop Fulton Sheen a saint. However, Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Cupich and Archbishop Matano of Rochester objecting to his beatification and getting the cause shut down is highly suspect.
  
  
  
• You know that dollar you gave to the Peter's Pence collection? It may have gone to help fund a movie about Elton John. 
  
  
• First we get Pachamama and now the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was not a holy day of obligation in the US this year. Interesting.
  
  
  
  
• I think Fr. Leonard Feeney got excommunicated not so much for heresy but because he had so many enemies in the clergy. He seemed to loathe any priest who was a public figure. He wrote critically of Fr. Knox, Thomas Merton, then Fr. Avery Dulles, most heads of Catholic colleges,  Fr. Keller of the Christophers and Archishop Sheen. He probably wasn't too complimentary to other priests he didn't like in person either. He also had quite a lot to say about Cardinal Cushing, none of which was "He's a jolly good fellow." I'm guessing that  there were many Jesuits and other priests all who had been doing a slow burn about him for years and when the excommunication happened whiskey flasks and champagne corks got opened in quite a few rectories around the country. 

Cancel your Netflix

Netflix is launching a movie that portrays Our Lord as a homosexual. Over a million people have signed a petition protesting this. That's nice but nice is worthless in a fight. People, you don't need to sign a petition. You don't need to say anything publicly at all. Just love Our Lord enough to cancel your Netflix. Jesus will know why you did it or didn't do it and that is all that matters.

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, Thou are the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Oh, be in a very special way the Good Shepherd of those poor lost priests who are also appointed by Thee to be leaders of Thy people, but who have broken the oath of their holy ordination and have become unfaithful to their exalted calling. Bestow upon these poorest of the poor the very fullness of that pastoral solicitude with which Thou dost so faithfully seek the sheep that are lost! Touch their hearts with the irresistible ray of grace which emanates from Thine all-merciful love! Enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, that they may turn away from all sin and error and come back to Thy holy altar and to Thy people. O most compassionate Savior! Remember that Thou didst once redeem the souls of Thine erring priests with Thy Precious Blood and in infinite preferential love didst impress upon them the indelible character of the priesthood. Put wholly to shame those miserable helpers of Satan who lay snares for the virtue of priests and endanger the holy ideal of the priesthood. Most graciously accept our prayers and sacrifices for poor priests who have gone astray and hear our earnest petition.

 Amen 

Imprimatur - Bishop John F. Noll (April 18, 1948)

St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests

St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests

St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests

St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests

Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.

Before you donate...due diligence

 Before you donate to any lay-run Catholic organization please check their IRS Form 990 first. The links below are a small example of what is available for the generous public.

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/472/472159793/472159793_201712_990.pdf

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/753087887/03_2019_prefixes_73-76%2F753087887_201809_990PF_2019031216166661
https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/030/448/2017-030448257-107c3d4f-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/541/031/2017-541031437-0ea6d8fd-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/953/754/2017-953754404-0f09a479-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2016/131/809/2016-131809274-0eaadbb8-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2018/412/011/2018-412011402-106443aa-9.pdf

I got nowhere else to go

This week a lot of people have been talking about losing their religion and going Orthodox or maybe just sitting at home in despair. Both Ann Barnhardt and Non Veni Pacem  have written masterful answers to these folks. The one thing that has long come to my mind when I read posts and hear podcasts of people who are doubting and looking at the backdoor is this scene from An Officer and a Gentleman. I got nowhere else to go. There is nowhere else to go. I watched a clip of the Russian Orthodox Easter service last year and a tear came to my eyes because I compared it to some of the appalling Masses I've been to but it didn't shake me. The Orthodox look nice* but they are not Catholic.  There is only one holy, catholic and apostolic church. There is only one Bride of Christ and outside of her is nothing. Don't let the Judases seduce you or drive you away from Christ. That's it.



*A lot of people babble about how awful Catholic Twitter is. If you want to see mean and nasty I suggest you spend an hour or two hanging out on Orthodox Twitter. 

At prayer

If you STILL give money to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception read this

A friend of my husband used to work at the Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in DC. He was so happy when he started but  eventually was so disillusioned that he quit. He used to love going to Mass at the shrine before or after work but doesn't feel comfortable even visiting to pray there anymore. According to my husband's friend, he is not the only one who has been dismayed by the odd way the monsignor runs the shrine. Morale among the employees is terrible and he's not the only one who's quit in disgust. There is an old and not at all funny joke that goes,"If you want to lose your faith, go work for your parish." I hope that hasn't happened to anyone who felt they had to leave the shrine.

If you are still donating to the shrine you might want  to read this article by George Neumayr. Something is not right.

St. Joachim and St. Anne, pray for us

rest in peace Lou Lou

My cousin in hospice has died. Her funeral is today. She had the hardest life.... I don't remember a time in my life when she wasn't either sick with cancer or suffering from depression. Eternal rest grant unto her Oh Lord. Let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.

Ave Maria

Áve María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum; benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Jésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstræ. Amen.

I hate when people at work talk bad about their spouses

It's always to the opposite sex for some reason. Never trust someone who does that with you.

Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• Whenever a a Catholic leader tells me that massive illegal immigration from Latin America is actually a good thing because these folks are natural family and tradition loving conservatives I assume that I listening to a liar or a fool. Neither one is a good thing. This Sprite commercial comes from Argentina,. 

• We are long past the point of arguing whether Francis is a true pope or not. He has the ring. He is in the Vatican and wields his power like a mace to the head of a bound victim. Benedict sits mute and hidden except for when he's trotted out by his minder, Archbishop Ganswein, and no active cardinal in good standing has the guts to say to Francis on camera, in public at a Vatican event that he's spouting heretical, idolatrous, globalist crap and is an unworthy hireling. There are those who are timidly waiting for Francis to die so that this dark night in the Church can finally end. Well if you are thinking that, stop it. Francis is probably going to live into his 90s and even if he died today his policies will live on many decades after him.
  
• Sr. Sasagawa of Akita says she's had another visitation after 46 years. I've noticed that this has been ignored by most of Catholic media. Another thing I noticed is that Sister said Our Lady spoke of penance and asked that we pray the rosary. She said nothing about Divine Mercy or loving icebergs.
  
  
• My cousin Lou Lou is in hospice. When she was 19 she had a hysterectomy and I think it led to the collapse of her first marriage.  I don't think she was ever free of depression for very long in her entire life and her siblings did not help. In your charity could you please say an Ave for her?
  
• Quite a few people were dismayed by the Virginia elections earlier this month but really what else did they expect? Catholic Charities and the Lutherans flooded Northern Virginia with Somalis.  This created a good deal of grumbling about the Catholics but it didn't stop the flood.   Northern Virginia is heavily Hispanic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somalian, Syrian, Afghani, and Iraqi. Many of my neighbors can't speak English but the Democrats were able to connect with them enough to get them onto the free van and car rides to the polls. Northern Virginia dominates Virginia because the government workers have money. The state is done. It's going to be a more southerly version of Maryland now. 

This quote haunts me....

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

For the Forgotten Dead

Words of Wisdom

“Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”

Sadly it was not a modern Catholic woman who said this but Margaret Nadauld, a Mormon. 

Lord have mercy

Into every life a time of tragedy and great suffering must fall. Everybody has a lonesome valley to walk through. My Uncle Junior and my mother may be about to walk into that valley. She noticed in their last conversation that he did not remember telling her something that he told her the day before and she says that he was "talking crazy," this morning on the phone. Junior's son called her a few days ago to tell her that Junior looked thin when Junior Jr. visited and there seemed to be signs of cognitive decline. Junior Jr. is going to take Uncle Junior into his home. My mother is the bravest person I've ever known but I can tell that she's afraid now. My Uncle Sonny Boy's dementia and death is still fresh in both our minds.