Good Habits - Bad Habits: Good Habits

A friend suggested I post some photos of women's religious habits I actually like.  (Sorry - I didn't note the order.)

If you really believed...

Would you be so careless?

At the conclusion of adoration last evening, I returned the monstrance to the sacristy, with the candles and the tabernacle keys, after reposing the Blessed Sacrament.  I noticed a large pyx on the cluttered counter - I looked at the design wondering if the pyx was empty or not.  I noticed a note to the visiting priest who had the Mass that morning.  The religious who wrote the note asked Father to consecrate the low-gluten hosts contained in the pyx.  I realized the Blessed Sacrament was present - and the pyx was just sitting on the counter.  It should have been placed in the tabernacle for Sr. Adult Formation Director to retrieve. 

Sometimes I really doubt these people believe in the real presence at all.

And we wonder why contemporary Catholics do not understand the faith, or why sacrilegious communions occur with such frequency.

Archbishop Nienstedt's 'Gay' Mass...

Nienstedt upstaged by a prof.*
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Actually, Archbishop Nienstedt did NOT have a gay Mass.  But  there were a contingent of gay students at a Mass he celebrated at St. John's University at Collegeville, Minnesota this past weekend.  The students, sporting gay emblems, approached the Archbishop for Holy Communion.  He denied them Holy Communion and instead administered a blessing.  Big news item, right?
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So anyway, afterwards, a priest at the college celebrated a Mass wherein the students were allowed to receive Holy Communion:
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The Rev. Rene McGraw, a professor of philosophy at St. John's, said he held a short Mass for the small group later the same night in which he served all of them Communion. He took issue with the archdiocese's interpretation of canon law when it comes to who can receive Communion.
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"My understanding of church law is that one is not to deny communion to anyone unless he or she is a public sinner, and that has traditionally been interpreted very narrowly," McGraw said. "My instinct was these are people who were in need, I'm supportive of them, therefore I'm happy to say Mass for them." - Source 
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It sure seems to me Fr. McGraw doesn't give a crap about Church law - he celebrated a Mass to undermine the Archbishop and distributed Communion to the protesters.  So what happens now?  This is where things could get interesting:  How will Archbishop Nienstedt deal with this priest, who more or less "opposed him to his face"?  (Although Fr. McGraw may not be under the Archbishp's canonical jurisdiction.)
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But then there's Michael Tegeder.
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Fr. Michael Tegeder, pastor of St. Edward’s Church in Bloomington, MN.  Fr.  Tegeder argues that the bishops would do better to focus on a real threat to marriage: poverty.
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What are the real threats to marriage? The Sept. 29 story “Economy is Hitting Hearts and Wallets,” about the effects of our current economy on marriage, said that “being broke and unemployed is not conducive to matrimony, young Americans are finding. In 2009, the number of young adults (25-34) who have never tied the knot surpassed those who had married for the first time since data collection began more than a century ago.”
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In every serious study, poverty is the top reason for marital breakdowns. It is very hard to make the case that a small percentage of the population who bond with members of their own sex and seek to live in a committed relationship could have anything but a positive effect on the general population’s appreciation of stable, faithful, life-giving unions. - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Tom Roberts of NCR interviewed Tegeder, who has never hidden his disagreements with Nienstedt’s leadership style.
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Asked if he feared reprisal, he recalled that he’d already been threatened by the archbishop “with excommunication and interdict” for installing a cremation garden at the church. When he was called on the carpet, he said, he was able to produce documentation that showed his parish had complied with all of the diocesan and state regulations.
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“If he throws me out I can walk away from this with my head up … I love ministry. I wake up at 5 every day and stay busy until midnight. I love it. I’m energized by the opportunities.” But some things just need to be said, he remarked. - Commonweal
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Denying Communion is one thing, getting the priests in line and on board is another matter.
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Photo:  St. John's Abbey church - on a cold day in hell.
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*H/T to Cathy

Breaking News: Religion really IS the problem.

"War broke out in heaven..." - Revelation 12:7
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Religious people are so on the defensive these days.  A few days ago I told you I was being blamed for Taylor Clementi's suicide - because I'm Catholic and support Catholic teaching on homosexuality - Catholic teaching does NOT condone suicide or gay bashing BTW.  (Very different from the Fred Phelps' version of Christianity.)  Still other pundits are blaming Christianity as well.
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That said, it is obvious that religion is part of the problem...  Why else would the non-believers attack religion if it did not pose a problem for them?  I'm not addressing the issue of bullying and suicide so much as I'm responding to the claim that wars and persecutions and other evils in life have all been waged because of religious differences, intolerance, etc..  There is a level of truth to that.  After all, it is God's creation and God's world - and there are innumerable people from every walk of life in this world, and demons as well, trying to screw it up.  We in the Church Militant are engaged in a cosmic battle between good and evil.  If the enemies of religion had their way and were able to eliminate religion - the result would be tyranny and enslavement, and the world would be no better for it. 
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So the next time some relative or friend or co-worker tells you - "religion has caused more wars and whatever..."  Just say, "Yeah!  I know!"

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Pray your Rosary.

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Art:  Our Lady of the Rosary At the Battle of Lepanto.  Believe me - Lepanto was ALL about religion.

"What did you go out in the desert to see?" - Luke 7:24

When St. Bruno went into the 'desert' of the Chartreuse he and his followers built a rustic chapel and huts for hermitages.  No heat, no electricity, no television or phone, no health insurance...  No grand charterhouse was envisioned or planned.  No fundraising or advertising campaign was initiated - nor did any of them make the rounds of the lecture circuit, or publish books.  They went in to the wilderness to pray.  Some of the men were quite learned and of a mature age - even over fifty.  They devoted themselves to prayer and divine study.  Whenever Bruno was called out - it was at the request of the bishops or the pope, and even then he remained as hidden as possible.

St. Bruno

Gee - That's different! More odd religious habits...

Beato Alberto Marvelli

October 5 is the feast of Blessed Alberto Marvelli.  Layman
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From the Vatican website:
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Alberto was very athletic and loved all kinds of sports, especially bicycling; this was providential, because it enabled him to carry out his future apostolate and works of charity and assistance.
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In October 1933, following the unexpected death of his father on 7 March of that same year, Alberto began to keep a spiritual diary at age 15 in which he detailed his daily schedule: "I rise as early as possible each morning, as soon as the alarm rings; a half-hour of meditation every day, not to be neglected except for circumstances out of my control; half an hour at least dedicated to spiritual reading; Mass every morning and Holy Communion as regularly as possible; confession once a week normally and frequent spiritual direction; daily recitation of the Rosary and Angelus at noon".
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When he was only 18, Alberto was elected president of Catholic Action. At Bologna University where he continued his studies, he was active in the Catholic organization, in addition to directing his Catholic Action group in Rimini. Every Saturday, upon returning home, he would give lectures, visit the poor and prepare programmes for the upcoming days. His primary concern was the plight of the poor.

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Alberto graduated in 1941 with a degree in engineering and left immediately for military service, only to be exempted from it after a few months because two of his brothers were already in service.
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Upon his return to Rimini, he was elected diocesan vice-president of Catholic Action. He began teaching in a high school, devoting his time to designing projects, to prayer (he was especially devoted to the Eucharist) and to helping the sick and poor.
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During the Second World War, the Marvelli family was forced to move to Vergiano, seven kilometres from Rimini, because of the devastating air raids. After each bombing, however, at the risk of his own life, Alberto returned to the city to help the wounded, dying and homeless.
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He gave to the poor what he had collected or bought with his own money: food, clothing, mattresses and blankets. Then, on his bicycle, he would carry what he could and distribute it to the needy. Sometimes he returned home without his shoes or even without a bicycle, all because he had given them to the neediest he met that day.
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During the German occupation, Alberto was able to save many people from deportation to the concentration camps, courageously freeing them from the sealed carriages of the trains that were ready to leave the station of Santarcangelo.
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After the liberation of Rimini on 23 September 1945, the Marvelli family returned to the city, now in ruins and without running water, electricity or sanitation.
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On the evening of 5 October 1946, as Alberto was cycling to attend a meeting for the local elections, for which he was a candidate, he was run over by an army truck and died a few hours later without regaining consciousness. He was 28 years old. - ALBERTO MARVELLI (1918-1946)

Saving the Blessed Sacrament in Madison.

I picked up this photo from Fr. Z's blog.  It shows firefighters rescuing the Blessed Sacrament from the fire which burned down the Cathedral of St. Raphael at Madison, Wisconsin in 2005.  Bp. Morlino told Fr. Z that no one would let him into the wreckage to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament.  The Bishop then found some Catholic firefighters who rescued the ciborium and luna containing the Blessed Sacrament from the ruins. - Story and more photos here.

Intercessors of the Lamb: An intervention...

For bad habits?
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I wish - look at those colors.  Anyway - some people think the group is a cult.  I've seen them on EWTN and I have heard wonderful things about them... so who really knows for sure?  Mother Nadine is from the St. Paul, Minnesota Good Shepherd Sisters of the Cross, which may account for the lack of taste, but I'm sure that is not a canonical issue.  Nevertheless, Archbishop Lucas seems concerned:
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On Thursday, September 30, Archbishop George Lucas accepted the resignation of Mother Nadine Brown, foundress and general director of the Association of the Hermit Intercessors of the Lamb. Lucas appointed the Rev. Gregory P. Baxter trustee of the association. Baxter is charged with governing, managing, and guiding the association.
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In May, Archbishop George J. Lucas retained the services of a canon lawyer to act as his delegate in conducting a canonical visitation of the Association of the Hermit Intercessors of the Lamb. The Rev. James J. Conn, SJ, JD, JCD, a canon law professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, conducted the first phase of the canonical visitation last summer before returning to Rome. Conn examined the association’s  governance structure, in addition to reviewing the doctrinal, spiritual, moral, and financial aspects of the association. The visitation was conducted in accord with the Intercessors’ statutes and in accord with the Code of Canon Law. - Press Release
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From what I can tell, the group does seem a bit cultish - in a Medjugorje-Charismatic sort of way that is.    Let's see what the visitation turns up.  To be fair, it is my understanding the community is simply undergoing a visitation and is not under any form of canonical discipline or penalty. 
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Mother Nadine

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"Oh!  Oh!  I know!  Let's start our own order and we'll make the habits real pretty!  Then we'll go on EWTN and tell stories and we will help lots of people and we'll build a big foundation, and then, and then..." - Just pretending.
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H/T Spirit Daily

Discernment

"I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another)." - Galatians 1: 6-12
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How easy it is to be led away by new teachings - not only in our times, but in the days of the apostles as well. 
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"There are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ."
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Sound familiar?  You know how in our times the scriptures have been manipulated to seemingly condone immoral behavior...
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"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that one be accursed.  As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed."
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Though addressing a different set of circumstances, I love what St. John has to say:  "Anyone who is so 'progressive' that he does not remain rooted in the teaching of Christ does not possess God, while anyone who remains rooted in the teaching possesses both the Father and the Son." - 2 John 9
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Works for me.
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“…the Lord gave me, and gives me still, such faith in priests who live according to the rite of the holy Roman Church because of their orders that, were they to persecute me, I would still want to have recourse to them…..And I act in this way because, in this world, I see nothing physically of the most high Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others. I want to have these most holy mysteries honoured and venerated above all things and I want to reserve them in precious places.” - St. Francis of Assisi

When St. Francis renounced the world and its seductions.

"My God and my all." - Prayer of St. Francis
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When St. Francis removed the clothing his father had provided for him and donned the rough garb of the penitent, he really and truly renounced absolutely everything.  There is a maxim from St. John of the Cross which says, "Sell your will, give it to the poor in spirit, come to Christ in meekness and humility, and follow him to Calvary and the sepulcher."  St. Francis had pretty much already done that by the time he was brought before the Bishop... Calvary and sepulcher would come later.  The fact is, Francis renounced the world and its seductions by faith, burning with seraphic love... 
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In renouncing his patrimony and all support - even food and shelter, Francis was like the ancients St. Paul wrote about in his Letter to the Hebrews:  "He thereby condemned the world and inherited the justice which comes through faith." [Heb. 11:7]  His poverty was complete.  Even as the first companions gathered around him, they lived in abject poverty, "they wandered about in deserts and on mountains, they dwelt in caves and holes in the earth." [Heb. 11:38]
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"The world was not worthy of them."  [Heb. 11:7]

Brother Leo's cave at Eremo di Carceri, Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi

Happy feast day to all!

Art: St. Francis in Glory.  Jacopo Ligozzi ( 1547-1627 )

The New Normal: Disorientation

Hitting the gong... secularism, consumerism, relativism, ism, ism, ism, ism, ism........
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The new normal is that there is no normal any longer...  Sounds like bar talk, huh?  But it is so true.  How can you be a Christian and buy into all of these errors?  Every day is a new controversy, as today's first reading from Habakkuk says, "destruction and violence are before me; strife and clamorous discord."
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Don't you think a sitcom, reality-show mentality was also at play in the voyeuristic, character assassination of Tyler Clementi?  On the other hand, haven't you noticed the increase of young people killing themselves - not just because they were harassed or bullied either - across the globe young actors and models and designers end potentially successful careers just as they begin to prosper.  Are not these 'special interest' suicides equally as tragic?  It seems to me suicide has become an acceptable final solution to life's problems for a new generation who have been raised to accept abortion as a way to end the "burden" of unwanted children.  As the children of the culture of death mature - government sponsored choice has become the solution, the alternative to reality.  (Government sponsored suicide isn't the norm - yet - but euthanasia is on it's way.) 
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Sexual disorientation.
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Believe me, I see suicide as a tragedy, and like everyone else, I consider the suicide of Tyler Clementi  as a horrible thing.  That said, it is almost a sure thing Clementi's suicide will lead to some sort of new legislation regarding 'domestic voyeurism', internet use, privacy issues, etc.  It will undoubtedly lead to more GLBT support groups in schools and on college campuses, as well as sex re-education programs.  We already know that in other states kids in the first grade are taught that gay marriage is no different from traditional marriage - Archbishop Nienstedt notes that fact in his communique regarding the Minnesota Bishops' Preserving Marriage DVD.
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How does a parent guide a child through all of this?  What if your kid presents as being attracted, or interested in the same sex?  What do you do when popular culture, government, schools, and science insist it is the new normal?  How has our culture become so disoriented?  A new generation has already been indoctrinated through media and education, and the process is accelerating in both private and public education.  If one opposes it, one is called a bigot.  What to do?
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The Christian Normal.
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I really don't know.  However, I take some consolation from today's second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to Timothy:  "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.  So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord...  Take as your norm the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us."
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In these days when it seems the love of most has grown cold and faith seems weak, we must cling to the faith as taught by the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him - even though our faith be the size of a mustard seed...
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Pray for the Church and families - as well as the disoriented.  We maybe can't solve everyone's problems, but we can have faith and hope, as long as we do what we are obliged to do.
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Photo:  The Gong Show

Mass Chat: The Archbishop's DVD on Preserving Marriage in Minnesota - not a big hit.

This Sunday's homily was all about the Bishop's of Minnesota DVD mailing and subsequent protests Father has received since it was announced and delivered.  I have no idea if that is the experience of pastors across Minnesota, but I kind of wanted to respectfully ask Father, "What did the Archbishop, and you, expect?  Kudos?"  If stats are correct, it is my understanding a high percentage of Catholics have ignored Humanae Vitae and Church teaching regarding artificial birth control and in-vitro fertilization, divorce and remarriage, sterilization procedures, and so on and on - for decades.  A recent poll suggests Catholics do not even know the basics of the faith - like, 'what is communion anyway'?  So the fact that people are not going to take a liking to the Preserving Marriage in Minnesota campaign should not really be a surprise - at least in more liberal Minneapolis.

In his homily, the pastor also expressed regret that most of the people he has spoken to haven't even bothered to watch the DVD.  I read the cover letter and all of the media coverage and I know what the DVD is all about - In fact, as readers already know, I completely agree with the Archbishop's statements and teaching.  I accept it and support the Archbishop.  I will watch the DVD sometime soon.  Other's won't.
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Prayers for the Archbishop and his priests - the other shoe will drop when changes in the archdiocese are announced  in the next couple of weeks... hold onto your pews - literally!

Guardian Angels

I love this feast day - I try to be conscious of my angel all of the time, but it is difficult to do. 
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Some people try to name their angel but I think in most cases that can be an exercise in self-love and vanity.  The angel names we dream up are often too romantic or even silly, while the images of our angels we concoct often reflect our own vain attachments to natural goods - beauty and grace - or sentimentality.  Of course there is nothing wrong for us to image them - artists have done so for centuries.  Some saints were actually told the names of their angel's - but that type of information (revelation) is always perceived according to the understanding of those so gifted.
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Anyway - I prefer to think of my angel as invisible and indefinable... but always present.  As Scripture tells us, they in turn "always look upon the face of God":  so just think how contemplative we become by uniting our prayer to theirs throughout the day.  I find that comforting.
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Happy feast day my angel.

Courses at the TOB Institute, 1000 Points of Light, The View from here, and other pressing issues for Saturday morning.

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Twenty Foreplay... (love that song)
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Seriously, as regards the TOB controversies, I don't really have a dog in that race and I'm mostly just adding a little Groucho vs. Margaret Dumont heckling into the mix with my posts.  Oh - to be sure, I'm against the Westian cult, for reasons explained by better people than myself.  (Dawn Eden, Fr. Geiger, Dr. von Hildebrand.)  Call me cynical if you must, but I can't help but be amazed and a little suspicious as regards all the efforts to defend the 'Institute' and West's position - if you know what I mean.  I sense there is more to all of this than theology.  The TOB tour has been looking more like a lucrative business venture lately... A research institute... publishing... the lecture circuit...  Too bad Oprah's going off the air - she could have had Chris West on to boost sales.
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Speaking of talk shows.
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Yesterday TV was on in the other room, and The View was airing - no I don't watch The View - on of the cats does though.  Anyway - they had a couple who went through hell and high water using invitro fertilization - $200,000 a pop BTW - and ended up losing the baby.  Naturally they wrote a book.

Two things here - First, all the gals were talking about the baby in the womb - no fetus - baby.  So these pro-abortion hypocrites know damn well abortion is murder - it kills human babies.

Second, Whoopie Goldberg seem's to be thinking she's some sort Maya Angelou now days, attempting to pass on sage advice to comfort the youngin's.  After the couple discussed losing the baby and their grief, Whoops solemnly interreupts the conversation with something like this:  "Now I have known many who have lost their child this way (miscarriage) and like I always tell them...."   Her voice lowers with an even more serious tone...  "I always tell them this little guy just came to see if you all were ready for him - but he couldn't stay yet - so he left... but he'll be back... he'll be back."
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Whatever.  "You keep talkin' girl, but you ain't sayin' nothin'!"  People are full of hot air - myself included.  All I could think of was Melvin Udall's line in "As Good as It Gets" - "Where do they teach you to talk like this? In some Panama City "Sailor wanna hump-hump" bar, or is it getaway day and your last shot at his whiskey? Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here."     
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Other pressing issues....
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I'm getting blamed for Tyler Clementi's suicide - well all of the gay suicides actually.  Okay - so I'm not personally to blame - but in conversation with a friend or two - I found out it is the Catholic Church's fault - driving gay kids to suicide - since I'm Catholic and support Catholic teaching, I'm just as much to blame.  Story of my life.  I grew up in a home wherein my dad hated the Church and kept threatening to take me out of Catholic school, refused to let me enter prep-school seminary after 8th grade, mocked priests and religious, while my Catholic siblings made fun of me for being too pious.  Believe me when I tell you, I know how to live through anti-Catholic rhetoric and blame. 
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Film clip:  "High Anxiety":  Courses at the TOB Institute: Marital Foreplay 101.

"Let the people come in procession..."

The last rites against evil...
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For many years I did not 'get' processions - I just thought they were like parades or religious spectacles.  I never 'liked' them - perhaps I was afraid to be thought of as too pious if I participated in them.  Nevertheless, processions have been coming back into liturgical 'fashion' after many years of disuse.  I know in Southern Europe and Latino countries processions are more common and popular, and of course at Lourdes, Our Lady asked for processions to come.
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I pondered thoughts like these after reading and posting about the Eucharistic procession Bishop Aquila led to the abortion mill in Fargo last Sunday.  I'm so impressed by the Bishop's faith in the Blessed Sacrament, his witness to life, and his courageous pastoral leadership.  I couldn't help but recall the many times throughout history processions have been made in supplication to God praying for the defeat of enemy invaders, the end of wars, plague, and even to stop storms and volcanoes. As you know, in Old Testament times the Ark of the Covenant was processed into battle - how much more appropriate in our day to process with the Real Presence; the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, carried in procession to the places of evil and death.  What a beautiful and efficacious witness for believers and unbelievers alike.
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Art - Illumination:   In the year 590, the city of Rome was in danger of becoming a desert, on account of the vast numbers who fell victims to the terrible plague then raging. Pope St. Gregory the Great, who also had been stricken with the dread disease, seeing that all human precautions had been in vain, had recourse to the most powerful of all protectors, Our Blessed Lady, the Virgin Most Powerful and Most Merciful. He gave orders that a picture of the Mother of God, believed to have been painted by St. Luke, should be carried in a general procession of all the clergy and laity as far as the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The violence with which the plague was raging may be judged that even during the procession eighty persons perished from it, but before it came to an end an Angel in human form was seen above Adrian’s tower (since called the Castle of St. Angelo) sheathing a sword tinged with blood, and from that moment the pestilence ceased. At the same time angelic voices were heard in the air singing, “Regina Coeli, laetare, allelluia, quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia, resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia.” The Holy Pontiff immediately added: “Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.” - Source

This isn't hard: Who's right? Janet Smith or Dawn Eden?

Who knows more about sex and theology?

Dr. Janet

Ms. Dawn Eden

I KNOW!  We ALL know it is Ms. Dawn Eden.
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“Dr. Smith's assessment reduces my thesis to a critique of a single author and speaker. On the contrary, my thesis demonstrates an overriding concern to critique a certain approach taken by West and his 'disciples' to interpreting recent teachings articulated by the Holy See.”
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“In the wake of Vatican II, there were many who asserted that the open windows of the Council enabled a radical break that would bring fresh air inside a stale and fetid Magisterium.”
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“It remains my contention,” she added, “that Mr. West and a number of popularizers formed by his catechesis – while intending to be faithful to Holy Mother Church – often use language disconcertingly similar to those propounding what Pope Benedict XVI calls a 'hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture.'” - Dawn Eden responds to Smith's attempt to discredit her thesis.
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"Consensual actions that culminate in intercourse are morally permissible."
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Oh!  If emails could talk!  God bless Dawn Eden!  Anyway - I'm pretty much being facetious here regarding the idea who would know more about sex and theology - based on looks?  Not a mature argument, right?  Maybe even a bit sexist.  But read this ridiculous defense by Dr. Smith for Christopher West's quasi-endorsement of sodomy as an option in heterosexual foreplay:
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"I never like to talk about anal sex (sorry, I don’t know a good euphemism).  As one of my friends has observed about my sensitivities regarding sexual matters, "You would censor Shakespeare!" (I would.) But the fact remains that Catholic couples in today’s world have questions about such issues. Many cannot understand why anal sex could possibly be appealing to anyone (include me and, indeed, West in that group), while others seem to find the act attractive. Certainly there isn’t any “Church teaching” about this action at a magisterial level, but few seem to know that there is a tradition of approval of such behavior as foreplay to intercourse (not to be confused with the biblical condemnation of sodomy which replaces intercourse) by orthodox Catholic ethicists. The principle generally invoked is that consensual actions that culminate in intercourse are morally permissible." - Moral Theologian Says Christopher West's Work is 'Completely Sound'
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Condescending theories...
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"I think it is important to keep in mind who West’s audience is. It is largely the sexually wounded and confused who have been shaped by our promiscuous and licentious culture. People need to think long and hard about the appropriate pedagogy for that group. [...]  For those whose lives are not spent in the academic world, a world in which minutiae can take on epic proportions... we scholars disagree not only with our archenemies but also with our closest and dearest allies." - Dr. Smith.

The prophet trodden underfoot...

Just for Kat.
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Crescat inquired about the image I used of St. Michael the Archangel trampling upon Satan for the feast of the Archangels, thinking it may have been the prophet Mohamed he was trampling instead.  I too had seen an image similar to the St. Michael sculpture.  In fact I think it was once a rather common image used to commemorate some victory over Islam, or to represent the truth of Catholic doctrine over Islam.  In times of terror (and/or conquest) such allegorical images are considered incendiary.  (As Basil Fawltey would say: "They started it!")
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The image shown above may be the one Kat was thinking of.  It is the base of a pulpit from a church in Belgium.
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"Belgian police are guarding a 17th century pulpit in a Catholic Church in the Flemish town of Dendermonde after threats from muslims. The pulpit depicts a man subdued by angels and is believed to represent the triumph of Christianity over Islam. The man is generally thought to be Mohammed. He is also holding a book which is generally assumed to be the Koran. The pulpit in the church of Our Lady dates from 1685-- two years after the battle of Vienna when the Christian armies of the Polish King John III Sobieski defeated the Turks who were poised to overrun Europe." - Full story from 2008


Will I be killed for publishing this now?

The accuser of our brothers is cast out. - Revelation 12:10

The suicide of Tyler Clementi.
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On the feast of the Archangels I meditated upon the verse from the Book of Revelation, referring to the Devil and Satan as the accuser of our brothers... who accuses them night and day before our God.  How often do we align ourselves with the Devil and Satan when we accuse our brother?   Or seek to expose his deeds before men?
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I think this is what Clementi's roommate and his girlfriend did - they accused and exposed a young man - just for the satisfaction of proving their accusations to be true, they streamed it online.  The upshot:  the tormented, humiliated and shamed Tyler Clementi committed suicide...   Tyler was an 18 year old kid, he had parents who love him.  Imagine their grief.
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Suicides and gay bashings and the ensuing gay battles are increasing day by day by day by day.
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Going forward we must only speak the truth in charity, without duplicity, and with respect for the dignity of each person, ever keeping in mind that "the accuser of our brothers is cast out..." and God's mercy is limitless.
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Photo:  George Washington Bridge - site of Clementi's suicide.

Little Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

Happy Feast Day.
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There are now so many innumerable students and experts on the life and doctrine of Little Therese that I could add nothing to the many beautiful eulogies, praises, and testaments said about the saint on her feast day today...  except perhaps...
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Whoever is a little one, let him come to me... seated at the table of sinners.
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"Sometimes it happens that despite their best efforts, some souls remain imperfect because it would be to their spiritual detriment to believe they are virtuous or to have others agree with them." - My Sister St. Therese