Happy New Year!

Your petitions will be before Christ at His Holy Sacrifice tomorrow. Much love, happiness, health and grace to each and every one of you.

Receiving Holy Communion by hand & YOUR "Reverence". Hello self-absorption.

A gorgeous picture of Holy Communion at Sancte Pater and a few worthy links in the comments section about the movement to discourage Communion by mouth.

Let us be clear about what happened.

An evangelist took the time to promote a more intimate relationship with and respectful treatment of the Divinity in the Eucharist.  Another evangelist read about it.  His reaction was to author a piece to undermine the effort and discourage Catholics from a more superior treatment to Christ.  If I understand him, his reasoning was people who promote reception of Christ by mouth make people who prefer to drop the properties of His Divinity onto the floor, where He will be ground into the carpet (because 'THEY' do it 'reverently') feel demonized.

A group of women said they just want everyone to feel welcome!  This welcome wagon caricatured people who want their devotions returned to them and their children as 'traditionalists' who are not welcome.  They caricatured Catholics who wish to promote deeper intimacy and respectful treatment of Christ, mentally ill, hostile, stupid, insane, filthy blasphemer, people who need a team of psychiatrists and exorcists.

These women were shocked, shocked I tell you when they were called bitches.  Pandemonium ensued.

Fr. John Higgins of Los Angeles, California, chimed in to soothe the hysterical women by telling them there is no Divine properties in pieces of the Eucharist that they find on their hands, clothes and the floor- and encouraged them to continue to do it.

I have no idea what would posses David Gray to respond to the promotion of Catholic practice by telling people not to respond because it will demonize them.  But if he is tired of the promotion of devotions that make people feel demonized, he's got a lot of writing of articles ahead of him.

When God or His Mother, their Church, their Sacraments or devotions are adored, glorified, venerated, treated with respect, obeyed or promoted, there will always be people who feel demonized.

People are demonized by Catholics who promote Adoration and the Rosary, Marian devotions, holy water, oil, salt, charistmatic healing.  A lot of Catholics feel demonized when they're told they can't have a sexual relationship outside of the Sacrament of Marriage, they can't use abortifacients or abort their children, kill their sick relatives.  Others feel demonized when the Sacrament of Confession is promoted.

Let us be clear about what is expected.

When a Catholic promotes a devotion - be it to stop dropping pieces of Christ onto the floor, the Rosary, the Sacraments, Adoration, Sacramentals - or whatever have you - David Gray should be authoring pieces in support of these practices rather than telling people not to.  End of story.

Our priests should support these undertakings and explain them to the women who have been trampling and undermining them for forty years.  Women should be teaching it to their children and witnessing to it in their parish and community.

The reason being, Christ may be working through the person promoting to the devotion to bring a person into a closer union with Him.  A deeper intimacy.  You've got a lot of nerve to interfere with that undertaking.  It is a disservice to Christ and the souls who could have benefited from it.

If you do not feel called to treat Christ with more respect because your respect is grounded in your own posture and emotions, have the decency to keep your pie hole shut.

Those of us who are sick and tired of the people who are sick and tired of Catholics who promote devotions of the Catholic Church will really enjoy this timely piece as Eye of the Tiber:

Nation's Catholics Demand Better Catechesis to Understand What Teachings to Ignore.

She went on to tell reporters that ever since she finished reading The Compendium of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that she felt she was being called to help enlighten the minds of others who were “unconsciously” denying the teachings of the Church. “Now when I tell people that I only attend Mass on Christmas and Easter, I know it’s because I just don’t care, and not just out of sheer ignorance of ‘my’ faith.”

That's why people feel demonized.  They have to face their own shallowness and disrespect or self absorption.   Those of good will who were doing it unconsciously, or in ignorance, will change the practice.  Those who just don't care - won't.  They may not like having everyone know they don't care but it is what it is - and everyone knows it.  Almost everyone in that thread was in latter category.  I'd be mighty scared as an evangelist, to see the people in my audience in that category.

The spoof at Eye of the Tiber came just in time for me.

A reader sent me a blog post she was scandalized by with the latest conspiracy theory about our prayer life.  There is a person who is purporting that Catholics who express they are praying for people, assuring people of your prayers, lifting people in prayer, are somehow attributing to ourselves too much perfection, or somehow undertake the offer of prayer because we believe we, not God, are the author of the outcome.  The hypothesis goes on to say this is the valid reason why our enemies hate us, we are holier than thou types - etc.

Please, do not ever stop assuring people of your prayers.  Assuring people that you have remembered their petitions and intentions in prayer, or lifted them in prayer is not a sin against the first commandment, as this conspiracy implies.

People need to hear that you are supporting them in prayer.   I know many people whose prayers are more efficacious than my own.   I will often go to them and ask them to pray for this or that, because it seems that Christ finds their petitions much harder to resist than my own.  They bring results swiftly and powerfully.  When they tell me they are praying for me without my asking, I am thrilled.

The most powerful of all, of course, is a priest who offers a Holy Sacrifice dedicated to an intention or petition.

Fr. Lucas Ogbonna's message today was the following:

  I remembered all of you at Mass today. Today is the Last Sunday of the year. May the Good Lord who has brought you thus far continues to bless and protect you all. Each of you is in my mind and prayers. I can assure you of the fact that.... - You are loved ! 

What a pity, truly, that there actually Catholics who make even these glorious expressions ugly (for themselves and for others)

 When people assure me of their prayers, I will sometimes bank them.  I may not have a specific intention at that time -- but I reserve that power.  Inevitably, somebody will tell me of a sick relative or a situation and ask for my prayers.  I do pray for their intention, but I also go to my bank and tap into the power of the prayers of a person with whom God finds favor.  I would never have that resource if I were ignorant that prayers were being offered for me.

Sometimes, I will receive courage, peace, joy from such an expression.

99.9 of people who express that we are lifting a person in prayer are returning those favors received - so that others can benefit in these same ways.

We are not all equal.  Christ spoke of his favorites while here on earth -- John and John.  His mother.  Nor are out gifts the same.  One person may have a charism another does not posses.  One healing. Another prayer.  These gifts are precious.  All of them.

There are many souls, both living and dead, whose petitions are more powerful than our own. There is nothing disordered about this reality.   If you are such a person, do not ever be discouraged or intimidated from expressing your assurances of prayers to another Catholic.  Ever.  It may be a special gift that has been given to you and that Christ wishes you to use.   Praise God in the outcome and use your gifts like there is no tomorrow.

Alternately, if you are a person who does not find favor with God, do not ever be discouraged or intimidated from  expressing your prayers for fellow Catholics.   God may be calling you to a closer communion with him by sending people who need prayer to you.  In prayer, you benefit, Christ benefits, the person asking for prayer benefits.

Even when an enemy has deliberately said they will 'pray for me'  in an effort to make themselves feel morally superior, I make use of those prayers.  Moreover, God will make use of them.

Any and every time we express to a person that we will join the entire communion of souls - on earth, in heaven and in purgatory who are praying together, those prayers can be used.

In other words, there is never a circumstance or a person in any kind of situation to whom you should hesitate to express that you are praying for them, are lifting them in prayer.

ADDENDUM:  Somebody sent me this article written by Danielle Bean at NCR.  Our friend Danielle is giving up on Communion on the tongue because of the lay ministers giving out Communion.

HA.   That is the sillies thing I have ever read.   Like giving up on sex because there are crying children in the house.

All you have to do is get in the line with the priest in it.

Usually, I know the priests habits and learn what side he stands on, sit in those pews.  But in the event I forget, or I do not know, or there is a switcheroo, I just very discreetly cross over into his line.

Always give witness to the holiness of what we are receiving.  Quietly, or not so quietly.  Whatever we have to do to testify and witness.

NY Newspaper Publishing Personal Information of Law Abiding Citizens Owning Guns

GOOD! The thieves and rapists will know exactly who to avoid.

You say hate like its a bad thing...

Our friend John Zmirak talks about hate at the National Catholic Register.

The presence of evil, of very different kinds, is harder to miss this year than most—at least since 2001, when my hometown was attacked. Because it was innocent blood, willingly offered, that wiped away the evil each of carries in himself, and offered us the antidote: imitating Christ, making sacrifices freely to further the Good, and push back against evil.

 Those sacrifices aren’t always peaceful—which is why the Church has thousands of soldier saints. We are not a religion for pacifists, or those who would stand by dabbing our tears and caressing our consciences while the weak are victimized. Sometimes we have to wade in, sword or gun in hand, and use deadly force to quash the actions of evil men—and we must do so without hating them. That doesn’t mean without anger, or even without (where needed) the will to kill. The plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 was carried out by a Catholic war hero, Claus von Stauffenberg, and met with the approval of Pius XII—who transmitted messages on behalf of the conspirators.

 Nor is it hate to want to see a criminal be punished, or to take a grim satisfaction in the execution of his sentence. Only those who do not believe in life after death who could think this way; to them, earthly life is the only and ultimate good, so wanting to spoil that for or take that from someone (for any reason) amounts yo hate.

Do read it in its entirety. It is outstanding.

I hope the yoga group in the Chancery doesn't get wind of this...

He could be the next Director of Religious Education.

Another Manifesto on Reception by Hand

This article, written by David Gray, rebuts an apparent attempt by Voris to promote the reception of Eucharist by tongue.

Boy, the claws really come out when a Catholic tries to spread a deeper respect for the Eucharist.

The discussion always takes on a preternatural quality...as if the demons are summoned from every corner of the earth.  It never fails to get creepy and weird.  And, from sources that can surprise you.

David (on Facebook) said while he appreciates people who promote reception of the Eucharist by mouth, he's sick and tired of it because it makes people who receive by hand feel demonized.

I'll bet you know what Carol has to say about the people who feel demonized when they are reminded that their manhandling of the Eucharist is leaving particles of the Divinity of Christ on the floor, onto shoes, where He is carried out into dog poo?

Cry me a river.

David claims it is not about whether Christ is dropped onto the floor, but rather, it is about how holy the people feel about themselves as they paw the Eucharist.  It is about the reverence as you do it, he says.

I'm not sure how much success I had explaining to him that the feelings of the Deity involved in the interaction are excluded from his hypothesis, but I offered to God a valiant effort.

I learned a lot of things from a Fr. John Higgins I'm willing to bet you never heard before.

He first tried to tell me that the Church teaches that the Divinity of Christ is not in the substance of particles that fall from the Eucharist.  Only a whole piece of bread has the substance of Christ's Divinity.  The rest is dust.   Worthless dust.   He told me folks like us who believe that the Divinity of Christ is in pieces that break off of the Eucharist are like the people who worry about the fumes of the 'wine'.

He switched up the story a bit when he realized he wasn't talking to your average Catholic idiot when I asked him why, if the Church taught that Christ's Divinity was not in particles broken off of the Host, why then would they provide a Corporal and other linens which are, according to protocol, handled as if they carried particles of Christ's Divinity?   He said the Church teaches the Divinity of Christ is only in particles broken by the priest but not in particles that break off in the Communion lines.

When I asked him why the Romans would then use a paten for the distribution of the Eucharist which is only permitted by mouth, he got the big violins out.     Poor Fr. Higgins, the victim of a modernist vicious woman who simply will not listen to her superior.    He and all the Bishops and the Pope touch the Eucharist with their hands and receive standing up.   Why, Pope John Paul even gave him the Eucharist in his hands.   The paten is just for people who receive on the tongue because they are irreverent, fumble and drop the Eucharist.

He and others in the thread divulged several more of their screwball ideas, but you get the gist.

A number of pathetic sappy sorts with misplaced empathy chimed in.  Poor Fr. Higgins.  Stupid, insane woman with a filthy mouth that is a source of sin.  Blasphemer.  Shame on me for being disrespectful to Fr. Higgings (crumpled in the corner with his wounded self-esteem).   I am a modernist.  Others claimed I was a RadTrad (the use of which I explained is a perverse insult to the communion of the faithful who practice a Rite approved by the Church).  A heretic.  I need a team of psychiatrists and an exorcist.

The poor, poor lambs.

I was on my best behavior until Fr. Higgins chimed in again with more news.  The Altar rail is/was only for keeping wild animals out of the Sanctuary.   Whilst I did have the fortitude not to say what I wanted to say, i.e., it is a crying shame they don't have a gate like that at the seminary admissions office - it got a bit ugly.

In between chores, I persisted in backing Fr. Higgins into the corner about the substance of Divinity in particles of Christ and after several hours, he reversed himself by claiming I was a liar and twisting what he said and confirmed that what breaks off during the handling of Communion by people, gets dropped onto the floor, trampled upon, taken out into the dog poo IS the Divinity of Christ.

While I praised God for His victory, numerous people comforted Fr. Higgins by hurling salvos and insults.

Here's the kicker: after a few hours of slander and insults for promoting the practice of Eucharist on the tongue, one of the women said she was just wishing me peace.    HA.

Shortly thereafter, Fr. Higgins said he had just about enough of me and just like that, POOF, he disappeared.

Proving once again, when one resists the devil, he will flee.

Wait.  What was the subject matter of David Gray's article again?

Oh yeah.  The demonizing of people who receive Communion in the hand.

LOL.

ADDENDUM:   The best was yet to come.  A psychic woman who saw me as sitting in the corner sucking her thumb because a) the people attacking the promotion of reception by mouth were not attacking Christ but rather, attacking me, and I, you see, was catatonic (am I the Christ in this scenario?)  b) my Christmas was without family and friends (I'm guessing sorta like Lucy Ricardo on her birthday, I think?) c) I am trolling the internet to hurt people because I am hurt - (hurt people hurt people - was that on Oprah?) or finally; d.) I'm trolling the internet for relationships in the comments section of people who despise Communion by mouth.

HA.  What is next?

Pining for love from Fr. James Martin?

Rocking back and forth in the despair of from being among a group of highly esteemed colleagues who are a featured insult on the Cardinal's blog and newspapers across the continental US?  

Pigs would fly before I could ever I give a dimes worth of my self-esteem and self-worth to a group of people who go on a rampage of insulting and attacking Catholics who promote the reception of Divinity without trampling Him into your shoes.

What a testimony to the shallow nature of faith that is out there.

Do these people even see Christ, know what it is all about?  When you speak to them, they don't see Christ as a separate being from themselves.   They cannot grasp the concept that when we speak or act or receive -- whether the Divinity of Christ or insults -- we are focused on Christ and not ourselves.

It isn't about us.  It never was and it never will be.

Merry Christmas!

I remembered you all and lifted your intentions in my prayers and will continue to keep you in prayer during our Christmas season.

I ran behind this year. Still have a few gifts to buy.  Never got my cards done and out.  I was behind on wrapping, cleaning, cooking.  And, I started early!

I absolutely love every moment of our holy season.  I love the tree, the ornaments and decorations passed through generations, the intensity of the prayer and presence of Christ, spending time with friends and family, preparing food that I think everyone will enjoy, doing crafts...etc.

I could do without the heaviness we carry in our hearts from the presence of people we loved who are now with Christ.  I think about and pray for/with relatives and friends who have died quite often - feel their intercessions.  So, I am always taken back by the intensity of the loss I feel for each of them.   I suppose it reminds us of the powerful the impact each of us makes upon the lives of others.

It really is a wonderful life.

Blaming the guns.

The more I think about it, maybe it is by God's grace the moonbats are blaming the guns.  I am really afraid that if they ever discover the problem is mentally ill people, they will begin exterminating them.

I said do ya speaka my language?

Could this be a Christmas miracle? People who have a role in public life and the media have a crucial role in forming public opinion. If we're going to evangelize people, we need evangelists who teach the true teachings of the Catholic Church.

Amen to that. I know the Cardinal sincerely believes this needs to happen. What then is the problem with its execution? Do you think they know how to roll out that plan? Maybe they really don't know why their machines are spitting out apostates? I'm dead serious. For years, my grandmother's blood sugar was out of control and she would, deadpan, tell us she had no idea what was causing it.

“There are just not enough legislators who favor life,” he said…

When your chief fundraiser for Catholic schools happens to be the chief fundraiser for training and electing prochoice politicians, is the Chairman for the largest provider of abortions, the people paying money to hire teachers no likey hiring teachers who are faithful to Church teaching.

 They hire teachers who teach Catholic children it's ok to be sexually promiscuous, sleep with irresponsible and immoral men and women, use contraception and avail themselves of abortion and fundraise, promote and elect politicians who promote these values.

When those children grow up, they become politicians and journalists, teachers and priests and the ideas they were taught by the Cardinal's employees shapes public opinion.

Get it?

If you want faithful evangelizers, you have to employ teachers and employees who will faithfully teach the true teachings of the Church. Appoint a cabinet and advisors whose public life are evangelizing the true meaning of the sanctity of life in politics and journalism. And more importantly, in education. Draft mandatums and ask teachers to sign and execute them. Fire them if they don't. Implement Ex Corde Ecclesia.

 In the media realm, Cardinal O’Malley said that Catholic media can also be a bridge to open relations with people in the secular media because “they speak the same language.”

See the language'these pictures speak? When the Cardinal's bridge to open relations with people is THIS he's going to have a communications nightmare with Catholics who speak the language of the Romans.

 This isn't rocket science.

Making Guns the Scapegoat is Cheap

On the same day, at almost the same time, a madman burst into a school and stabbed 22 children in China. The muslim terrorists used box cutters to kill 2000+ people. The problem is mental and spiritual illnesses. Hatred. The devil.

Gaudete Sunday

We celebrated with a heavy heart.

 I wondered how many will have the courage to answer questions truthfully, if at all. Why? Because there are laws regulating the killing of human life has based upon the opinions of people who find you a nuisance. An inconvenience.

 Because the country operates freedom without morality, ethics, truth and God. Because insanity rises from the smoke of satan, fanned from the flames of consuming souls.

  Can you believe some nutcase emptied the Church, where people were seeking healing of their grief, with another threat of violence?

 Madness. On Christan Joy.
;

On our own part indeed, the ministry of reconciliation is being exercised in the midst of many contradictions and difficulties,(2) but it is sustained and accompanied in us by the joy of the Holy Spirit. Likewise we are truly able to adopt as our own and address to the universal Church the confidence of the Apostle Paul in his community at Corinth: "...you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I have great confidence in you...I am filled with comfort. With all our affliction, I am overjoyed."(3) Yes, it is for us, too, an exigence of love to invite you to share this abounding joy which is a gift of the Holy Spirit... This situation nevertheless cannot hinder us from speaking about joy and hoping for joy. It is indeed in the midst of their distress that our fellow men need to know joy, to hear its song. We sympathize profoundly with those over whom poverty and sufferings of every sort cast a veil of sadness. We are thinking in particular of those who are without means, without help, without friendship—those who see their human hopes annihilated. More than ever they are present in our prayers and our affection. We do not wish to overwhelm anyone. On the contrary, we are looking for the remedies capable of bringing light. In our view, these remedies fall into three categories... There is also needed a patient effort to teach people, or teach them once more, how to savor in a simple way the many human joys that the Creator places in our path: the elating joy of existence and of life; the joy of chaste and sanctified love; the peaceful joy of nature and silence; the sometimes austere joy of work well done; the joy and satisfaction of duty performed; the transparent joy of purity, service and sharing; the demanding joy of sacrifice. The Christian will be able to purify, complete and sublimate these joys; he will not be able to disdain them. Christian joy presupposes a person capable of natural joy. These natural joys were often used by Christ as a starting point when He proclaimed the kingdom of God.

.

Breaking News: Boston Archdiocese Develops New Catholic Vocabulary

Our friends at Boston Catholic Insider have breaking news:  The Boston Archdiocese have authored a new Urban Catholic Vocabulary to go along with their new evangelization and new structures.

On January 16, 2013, we will be beginning Stage One of Training for the Pastoral Plan: Stage One training is for the Pastoral Center.

In it we will learn some of the same leadership, management, and evangelization skills that will be taught in the collaboratives in their very extensive training program. We will learn the same vocabulary, the same structures, and the same vision that they will learn. Appropriately, we will lead the way in the training effort.

That's right.  Appropriately, the people at the Chancery are going to lead the way out of the mess they created.


TTC has obtained a copy of the wizards' handbook and is pleased to give readers a sneak-peak at the vocabulary index:

Soper's Suckers:  Parishes volunteering to be the first to execute the plans.

Cluster Fugatz:  Fights between parishioners over who gets fired and what gets closed.

PWPAPs:  Priests without parishes and pensions.

CWSACs: Catholics without Sacraments and Catechisms.

FEUTCWAPs:  Fired Employees Up The Creek Without a Paddle. (Employees working for the Archdiocese for decades who are not eligible for unemployment)

MPME: Motu Proprio My Eye 

SDYALD:  The Sisters of Divine Yoga and Liturgical Dance

JCSOSCS:  Jack Connors School of Schismatic Chancery Structures

ABSTGOOD: Auxiliary Bishops Scrambling to get out of Dodge.


The truth of the matter is, the plan isn't about getting people into a state of sanctifying grace and keeping them there.

They have a long way to fall.

Susan Rice drops out...

Cry me a river.

The Brouhaha about "how many are saved"

Have y'all been following it?

 Fr. Barron has kicked up a dust storm with this piece.

 Yeah. Okay.

 Wait a minute...What?!

 I'm a huge fan of Fr. Barron's, but I'm not sure this treatise adequately defines Catholic theology on salvation. Perhaps I misunderstand him, but Fr. Barron's piece seems to convey the idea that Christ's Incarnation, Sacrifice and Death which purchased the Institution of the Catholic Church, was a salvific covenant with every cat in town.

 It gives the impression that unrepentant sinners and pagans are a branch on His Vine.

 I don't understand why Fr. Barron would even attempt to speculate what the word 'many' means. 

Whatever number has been faithful during the 2000 years of generations of Catholics, there are a lot of us. The word many applies. It is a number to rejoice over. But many does not translate to most and it definitely doesn't mean all.

 Christ does not give pearls to the swine nor food to the dogs. During His entire ministry. He repeatedly tells the gentiles that they are unworthy and excluded. Unless, of course, they profess their faith in Him. He makes the gentiles publicly declare their faith before He performs a miracle to avoid the confusion and scandal that all would be fed His Truth, given His Substance of His Divinity and salvation.

 As usual, Voris clarifies some of the content beautifully, here.

  If a particular protestant is admitted into Heaven, it is despite it. And, the same goes for buddists, muslims and all the rest.

 There is no doubt, as it is Church teaching, that Mercy will be granted to particular people within a group who are exiled, depending upon their circumstances.

 They were in the middle of a desert, without the means to hear and know the Truth. They were low IQ and not capable of understanding, processing the spoken and written word. Victims of other people, who are in so much pain - they were irrevocably scandalized. They were martyred for their Christianity. Pedophiles, murderers, cannibals and pagans can be saved.

 But we don't author a piece implying they can go right on doing what they're doing because Christ's Mercy will greet them and escort them to Paradise.

Feast Day of St. Juan Diego

I love his story. He was a migrant worker who rose every morning to walk 15 miles to daily Mass in the 1400s. Our Lady asks Juan to deliver a message to the bishop. Can you imagine how many other things she tried before taking this drastic measure? Our Lady is subtle. We, her children, those who have recourse to her,can sense her presence, gentle warnings and guidance. Peace is disturbed in a room where there is a danger. It's a bit like you can't find the oxygen. Your animus mysteriously picks up the amber alert. I wish I paid attention to it more at that stage. I usually try to overcome it. Bring happiness, joy and peace. But, it never feels quite right. When we don't respond, the Queen of the Angels dispatches a more less subtle messages and messengers. In the dead of Winter, Juan dropped the rose petals he carried in his tilma onto the floor in front of the patronizing bishop Here you go dude. Build the Church. He was unaware of the miraculous image. These kinds of things are less miraculous than Transubstantiation and all the mystical things that happen during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Just the same, when something mystical manifests physically and materially, it's unexpected and a little shocking. We can imagine the 'whoah' moment. The Church was built in which this beautiful treasure hangs. From Blessed Pope John Paul II:

Happy Juan Diego, true and faithful man! We entrust to you our lay brothers and sisters so that, feeling the call to holiness, they may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel. Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, sustain the efforts of parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization, or ignorance. May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be reinforced. Beloved Juan Diego, "the talking eagle"! Show us the way that leads to the "Dark Virgin" of Tepeyac, that she may receive us in the depths of her heart, for she is the loving, compassionate Mother who guides us to the true God. Amen.

Amen.

A Doozy from the National Catholic Reporter

Oh, the injustice.   Egregious assertions. Anatomy is a barrier. Excommunications.  Laicization.  Dismissal. Absurd limits say the majority of the faithful. It just "can't be allowed to stand"!  

The Bourgeois castration sure has them all fired up.

Here's the kookiest part:

Blessed John Henry Newman said that there are three magisteria in the church: the bishops, the theologians and the people.

You know something is wrong with that urban legend. If we were nitwits and took this on face value, it's almost as if they're saying the contributions of the now laicized and excommunicated Roy Bourgeois, Richard McBrien and Joan Chittister are just as important as 2000 years of Popes. I couldn't find any source at all linking it to Blessed JHN but even if he did say it, there's no doubt in my mind that he was speaking about 'theologians' and 'people' who are doctors of the Church and Saints. They've polled people at the National Catholic Reporter to get a sense of the infidels and they have a message:

Our message is that we believe the sensus fidelium is that the exclusion of women from the priesthood has no strong basis in Scripture or any other compelling rationale; therefore, women should be ordained. We have heard the faithful assent to this in countless conversations in parish halls, lecture halls and family gatherings. It has been studied and prayed over individually and in groups. The brave witness of the Women's Ordination Conference, as one example, gives us assurance that the faithful have come to this conclusion after prayerful consideration and study -- yes, even study of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

Studying Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is a spectacular idea. Oh wait...They don't mean they should study it? Popes have been studying it for 2000 years. Here's the bottom line: The Pope stated that “in some places” the possibility of ordaining women to the priesthood was “considered still open to debate.” Nevertheless, “in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance,” the Pope stated unequivocally, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” 

The end.

Zimmerman Sues NBC for Editing Tape to Frame Him as Racist

I cannot fathom what kind of a person could edit a 911 tape to make a person look guilty of something they are not.

I just can't take my mind there.  

What kind of thoughts cross your mind about your fellow human being as you are doctoring up the tape and the bogus story?

I am so glad this poor man is suing NBC.    God bless and protect him.

Most Highly Favored Lady, Gloria!

I love you. Thank you.  For always having my back.

Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel and Ransom Captive Israel.!

To be perfectly honest, there has been so much turmoil in the West Bank, I don't know what to think about the fight over the land at this point.  Devotion to religious places of worship which are located on a piece of land does not make it Judaism a nationality.   It is a religion.   

Catholics and Christians in the area speak of much cruelty and persecution just as much from our Jewish brothers as from the terrorists of islam.    My support of Israel in the political conflict is completely based upon the utterances from muslim brotherhood saying their objectives are to annihilate the Jews, they are advancing and has promised to fly their flag over East Jerusalem.

Because of the theological misunderstandings, Catholics have to be especially careful when they express their support for Israel.  

Earlier this week a fellow Catholic who actively posts on Facebook put up a link to an article written by Cardinal Schonborn promoting the skullduggery that Catholics need to be zionists.

I usually scroll facebook quickly to look for news and noteworthy things to share on the blog and always thought this particular Catholic had some good Catechesis.  I was surprised to see him praising the article.  He is Eucharistic, Marian - even prays the Rosary with his family.

As I tried to explain theology and Scripture, he revealed the immaturity of theololgy and Scripture.  .  In silence, I could smell the urban legends of the misguided Jesuits:    

God promised the Jews a piece of property and once they get it, and settle in it, they accomplish their redemption.  Catholics need to be behind their efforts because it is a fulfillment of God's promises.  There are to be no efforts for conversion because this is an 'extenuating circumstance'.  It's all a big misunderstanding.     They do not have a New Testament, so they must obtain land physically.   It's all right there in Lumen Gentium.  The dogmatic constitution of the Catholic Church.  It's all right in this link.  

Right, straight out of God's mouth.  Unless of course, I don't believe in Vatican II.  Am I SSPX?  

The conversation did not completely fall upon deaf ears but it was a FF (facebook filibuster).  Not sure how much progress I actually made.

I tried to explain that the Catholic Church is Israel, the fulfillment of Old Testament promises - the Promised Land - and Cardinal Schonborn is selling them a cheap trick, robbing the Jews of their inheritance.    A bit like having somebody circling your neighborhood for generations asking for directions to the bank so they can cash their checks and we keep sending them to closed branches.

It  is cruelty to delude people generation after generation.   Practicing Catholics are exasperated by Cardinal Schornborn (and prelates like him) who just can't be a man.

The delusions they sell aren't limited to the Jews.  They do it to all people in the community and even in their own pew.

On my way to Mass today, I passed a home where witchcraft is practiced.  That's their shtick.  Their front yard has some kind of round, circular ritual area.  They are sometimes in news.  They get their jollies from the people who gawk at them.

On the first day of Advent, a big black crow was perched on top of an evergreen in their driveway.   It was the fattest vulture I ever saw.   A big, black, well-fed and content vulture. It was creepy.

There is a sucker born every minute.

 I thought about it few minutes later.  As the catechumenates were standing beneath the gigantic Crucifix in the Sanctuary professing their intentions, there was a woman across from my pew listening to them.  Her hands were over her heart and she was gazing at our Beautiful Christ, Hanging there in His Glory.  Crucified.

What a contrast.  What a world.

Happy are those who are called to the Supper of the Lamb.

I thought we'd kick off Advent with some Fr. Rutler.

FROM THE PASTOR 
by Fr. George W. Rutler 

 The four weeks of Advent are a test of how profoundly or superficially we understand the meaning of life. In these weeks, the Church reveals the deepest mysteries: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Christ saves us from the banality of skimming life on the surface:  eating, working, shopping, sleeping, waking up and doing it all over again. He created us for great glory, and that is why people become frustrated when they ignore these great mysteries. “Angst” is a kind of neurosis, stemming from an unwillingness to listen to the voice of Christ.  He may be drowned out temporarily by idle chatter and amusements, but as St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they find their rest in Thee.”

 Rushing Christmas, and not thinking about what Christ wants us to be, are signs of a culture absorbed in itself, so that it becomes no greater than itself. That old maxim is poignant no matter how many times we repeat it: “A man wrapped up in himself becomes a very small package.” More important than wrapping gifts in this season, is the obligation to unwrap ourselves:  to confess to Christ our failings and our desire to live life as He wants it, so that we might rejoice with Him forever and never be separated from Him.

 Our culture is enduring a severe test of itself. If Christ does not rule our minds and hearts, mere humans will try to do it, and they will do it badly. When the Judges of Israel wanted a merely human king, Samuel warned them:  “He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves and give them to his officials. He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become slaves” (1 Samuel 8:14, 17).

 Our Lord promises that the truth will set us free. His word is truth. That is what He told Pontius Pilate, whose life was a dreary routine mired in cynicism. But even Pilate was amazed that Christ's own people had “handed Him over” to the government. By their own declaration, the crowd wanted “no king but Caesar.” Had they obeyed Christ’s truth, things would have been different for them. Each generation is tempted to hand Christ over to cynics. We do it when we barter our conscience for comfort and our freedom for frivolity.

 If Catholics behaved as Catholics, our culture would be not be satisfied with getting little things from elected officials in exchange for our moral dignity. If we only want things, we shall only be things. Christ looks at us, as He looked at the crowds when He walked on this earth. And amid the passing fashions of mindless men, He says: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37).


'NUFF SAID.

This is what I'm talking about...

In the wee hours of the morn, I ride the commuter rail into Boston every day.  I like being at my desk at 7:30.    I've been doing so for many years and will often exchange pleasantries with my fellow commuters (in between starting my day with my Magnificat and other prayers).

One day a few weeks back, as I was de-boarding, a gentleman said 'good morning', smiled and said "You are ALWAYS smiling. It is amazing."

For a moment, it caught me by surprise.   (Because...well...you know.)

"Am I?"

Oh yeah, I am!

That's love, my Love.  I try to feel Him in all things.  Whisper and reach for Him.  His light is so bright it shines through it all.

I found the following prayer on Facebook.  It was not attributed to an author but whoever it was and is, I thank them.  It profoundly says what I feel every day, in every circumstance - and every cretin who pokes me with the stick.  Ha!


‎"Teach me, my Lord, to be sweet and gentle in all the events of my life, in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied. Let me forget myself so that I may enjoy the happiness of others. Let me always hide my little pains and heartaches so that I may be the only one to suffer from them. Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path. Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden or embitter me; that it may make me patient, not irritable; that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow or proud or overbearing. May no one be less good for having come within my influence; no one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble, for having been a fellow traveler with me on our journey towards eternal life. As I meet with one cross after another, let me whisper a word of love to You. May my life be lived in the supernatural, full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of sanctity. Amen."