Fr. Marcel Guarnizo's fate... Priestly faculties removed.

Placed on administrative leave.

Sadly, after Mass this evening, I received word that Fr. Guarnizo's assignment at St. John Neuman Parish has been withdrawn and he has been placed on administrative leave with his priestly faculties removed.  The notification was signed by Monsignor Knestout, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C..  The reason stated for the suspension is that Monsignor Knestout has received several complaints against Fr. Guarnizo claiming intimidating behaviour on his part against parish staff and others, and 'that is incompatible with proper priestly ministry.'

This is very sad news.  Please pray for Fr. Marcel Guarnizo.  And all priests.

Amy Farrah Fowler got a tiara!

"Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage."

Addressing the bishops from my part of the country upon their ad limina visit this past week, the Holy Father reaffirmed Church teaching regarding marriage...

He added that the traditional family and marriage had to be "defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature" because, he said, whatever injured families injured society.

"In this regard, particular mention must be made of the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage (in the United States)," he added in a clear reference to gay marriage. - Reuters

What never ceases to amaze me is how progressive Catholics continue to work in dogged opposition to the Pope and the Bishops - most of whom are now, more than ever, in complete agreement and communion with the Holy See on Catholic teaching regarding marriage and contraception:  How 'they' can fail to see the will of God in such magisterial unity, seems to me to be moving strikingly close to actual apostasy. 

Photo:  Archbishop Nienstedt with the Holy Father.  CatholicSpirit.com

This made me laugh...

Gloria Gone Wild.

She wants Limbaugh arrested.  LOL!

Kony 2012 Campaign?

Digital activism, digital polemic, digital propaganda, digital brainwash...

Is anyone else suspicious of this online campaign to make the Ugandan rebel, Joseph Kony famous enough that the United States should go after him and eliminate him?  Isn't this a little too strange?  The sudden phenomenal media blitz strikes me as suspicious, enlisting all the usual celebrities and politicians, picked up and promoted by the MSM...  More on the story here.

Testing... testing... testing...

Photo: Kony 2012 Celebrities

Blog of the week: Spike is best.

Paul Stilwell is not only a talented artist and gifted iconographer, he is an excellent thinker and writer.  He has offered an ongoing debate regarding Christopher West's snake-oil interpretation of Blessed John Paul's Theology of the Body catechesis, and shakes it down remarkably well in a series of posts.  Click here:  Spike is best. 

Art: Paul Stilwell

Where is that promised 'New Springtime'?

On my drive to adoration yesterday, the thought occurred to me that the New Springtime Bl. John Paul II predicted, most likely is the restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass and all of the other reforms we are seeing unfold today because of it - 'and persecutions besides.' [Mark 10:30]

Just a thought.

The rich man and Lazarus...

Some thoughts:

"If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead." - Luke 16:31

If Moses and the prophets and traditional Christian morality is rejected and redefined - in other words, disbelieved, while the Resurrection is denied...

The rich man didn't see Lazarus:

One Thursday evening, while having supper and watching an episode of 30 Rock, Jenna walked up to Liz, who was talking with a nerdy type guy she knew from school.  Jenna started talking as if Liz was all alone and not engaged.  Liz asked her if she noticed she was talking to someone - Genna responded "I don't see people who look like that."   

Narcissism is funny.  We laugh now...

John of God - a precipitous saint.

He often acted rashly and impetuously.  After a devout childhood, he went through a sinful period in his life.  After his conversion, townsfolk thought him mad and sent him to a madhouse.  Eventually, he got hold of himself, put his life to good use, and became a saint.  Read his story here.

John of God is patron of booksellers, printers, nurses and health care workers, patients and the sick, firefighters, and let us add, the obsessive-compulsive-impulsive, kinda crazy amongst us.

Art:  John of God and Angel, Source

Being 'other' directed.

Looking for approval and affirmation from others...

Kids do it by trying to be popular in high school - or so outside the norm they get attention for being a freak.  Media people do it by obsessing over stats and ratings and worrying about sponsors.  Many bloggers do it the same way.  It's a thing people do, isn't it.  I have no intention of writing a big essay on it - just making a comment.  I hate it when I catch myself doing it. 

Nothing so defiles a soul as the love of glory. - John Chrysostom

Photo: Felini, 8 1/2 - or is it La Dolce?

Just when everything seemed to be going so well...

What happens?
Well, sometimes you can fall into that really big sin which once plagued you.  You thought you were over that one, huh?  Maybe you were too mature to fall that way again?  Sometimes great big falls from grace happen, so that after our repentance we become even more humble.  Sometimes our falls serve to wake us from our complacency, presumption and self-satisfaction.  The experience can be valuable to demonstrate just how much we need God - or owe God - and thus we are reminded that we can do nothing good without Him.  Of course, sometimes we've just been in denial about our intentions and desires... concupiscence - ignoring the occasions of sin we place ourselves in. 

But what if you really are doing well, and you just aren't plagued with temptations, and no occasion or near occasion of sin seems to be hounding you?  What if you are making it to Mass, setting aside time for prayer and everything is good?  Like you are just not bothered any longer.  What up with that?

Many persons who find no sin in themselves, because they have committed no grievous sins, are full of sins of omission, sins of indirectly voluntary and consequently culpable negligence. - Garrigou-Lagrange

*Another reason for big falls may be attributed to our negligence in regulating venial sin.  In addition to that, sometimes after we've struggled with habitual mortal sin for many years - we can be so focused upon the serious stuff, we just don't notice the venial sins and imperfections which have attached and cling to us.

Disclaimer:  This post wasn't about anyone in particular.

Get this...

From Fr. Louis - Thomas Merton:

"I am truly spry and full of fun, but am pursued by the vilifications of progressed Catholics. Mark my word man there is no uglier species on the face of the earth than progressed Catholics, mean, frivol, ungainly, inarticulate, venomous, and bursting at the seams with progress into the secular cities and Teilhardian subways. The Ottavianis was bad but these are infinitely worse. You wait and see." -letter to Robert Lax, poet and friend of Merton, 1967

God love him!

H/T PML
Source: la nueva primavera 

Fr. Corapi sightings... it's been a year this month.

Why haven't there been any sightings of Fr. Corapi in the past year? 

Never mind.

"Marriage is a high and noble vocation."

"It is not easily followed."

What can I say, a single guy, never a dad, about the importance of traditional marriage?  How?  Why?  Why am I so concerned about something like traditional marriage?  One important reason I can think of is because I come from a family wherein marriage was anything but 'high and noble'.  My parents were completely irresponsible, negligent, abusive alcoholics.  Yes, they did the best they could, but they had huge unresolved, unaddressed issues which affected how they parented.  The were indiscreet in their sins, acting them out in full view of the kids, not simply through drunkenness, open sexuality, physical and mental abuse of one another, but their extramarital exploits were not well disguised or unknown. 

Immorality is a horrible example to set for kids.  It is an abuse. 

In our day, single parents, unmarried parents, and kids of divorce are so common - in every economic strata - yet this fact can offer no justification to reorder, or redefine marriage between a man and a woman.   Likewise, same sex couples, pretending to be married, cannot present a moral alternative to the failure of marriage in our culture.  It is precisely because there is, and has been, such a crisis of marriage that same sex marriage is even considered as a viable and acceptable proposition.  It is not.

Anyway.  The Archbishops of Westminster & Southwark have issued a Pastoral letter on the redefinition of marriage to be read this weekend at all the Masses.  I wanted to share a part of that text:

The reasons given by our government for wanting to change the definition of marriage are those of equality and discrimination. But our present law does not discriminate unjustly when it requires both a man and a woman for marriage. It simply recognises and protects the distinctive nature of marriage.

Changing the legal definition of marriage would be a profoundly radical step. Its consequences should be taken seriously now. The law helps to shape and form social and cultural values. A change in the law would gradually and inevitably transform society’s understanding of the purpose of marriage. It would reduce it just to the commitment of the two people involved. There would be no recognition of the complementarity of male and female or that marriage is intended for the procreation and education of children.
We have a duty to married people today, and to those who come after us, to do all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations.
Most Reverend V. Nichols
Most Reverend P. Smith

They might have added:  "Changing the legal definition of marriage will screw kids up." 

That said, I'm pretty sure nothing will stop it - it is on a trajectory of its own.  

H/T St. Mary Magdalen Blog, Fr. Blake

If I had kids, I would not want to have to explain this...

The new normal.

I came across this photo today, of a Marine returning home and jumping into the arms of his partner in a passionate embrace and kiss.  Story here.   

In the meantime, parents who hope to raise their kids according to the accepted norms of traditional morality and religious teaching face ever increasing challenges such as this, in your face, public display of affection.  Sanctioned by the United States Marines and the United States Government.

Quote of the Day

"It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile." - Chesterton

This quote gave me such an overwhelming sense of sadness that I began to think about what, in my own experience, has been "destroyed" or "sent into exile." My sadness over what has been destroyed is easy to explain. The poor murdered peers of my children and grandchildren stretch out in a long line of mangled bodies from sea to shining sea. T.S. Eliot's Prufrock said life was "measured out in coffee spoons," but since the sixties life in the U.S. has been measured out in tiny dead babies flushed down the toilet and mingled with the garbage in our landfills.

And what has been "sent into exile?" Truth. To speak the truth today is to be accused of intolerance, lack of compassion, hate speech. Ears that want tickling prefer political correctness, lies, and flattery. Evil demands to be called good and threatens to crush those who refuse to bend to the demand.
 - All from Les Femmes

Although this post is full of good quotes, this is the quote which impressed me the most, and inspired the post:

And what has been "sent into exile?" Truth. To speak the truth today is to be accused of intolerance, lack of compassion, hate speech. Ears that want tickling prefer political correctness, lies, and flattery. Evil demands to be called good and threatens to crush those who refuse to bend to the demand.

H/T to JimS for the link.

Abbey Roads is a nice blog now... NetNanny approved!

Big hug!

Sandra Fluke doesn't speak for me either.

But...


I don't get it.  Remember when Dan Aykroyd called Jane Curtain an ignorant slut?  No one made a big deal of it way back then.  So why did Rush have to apologize?

What? 

I have to get back to painting now....

(Source)

Poodlecrat or Repoodlecan?

Poodles are apolitical.

Did you know black dogs are not as adoptable as non-black dogs? 

Precipitation...

Not the wet kind.

I'm talking this kind:

pre·cip·i·ta·tion (pr-sp-tshn)

n.

1. A headlong fall or rush.

2. Abrupt or impulsive haste.

3. A hastening or acceleration, especially one that is sudden or unexpected: He is responsible for the precipitation of his own demise.

 

I think it has been my predominant fault in life.  Or maybe not.  In retrospect, making a quick getaway was at times a lifesaver.  Or maybe not.  My precipitousness led me to make not a few rash decisions throughout my life.  In fact, this post is somehow rather precipitous, not unlike most posts I do - but I'll try and make this one short and not reveal too much. 

People act precipitously when they act impulsively and without sufficient reflection.  Like when they wake up one morning and say to themselves, 'I'm quitting my job!'  And they have no other job to go to.  Or, 'I'm leaving my vocation to do something else!'  And although they may have a plan, they do not have the means or wherewith all to accomplish it.  Or worse, they keep reinventing the same plan over and over, taking in people along the way.  'I'm going to start a new company in this town!'  After getting the backers, the first town turns out to be not the right town, so they up and leave and go to the next.  But I'm getting away from my original intention here.  The do-what-you-love-and-the-money-will-come gyrovagues sort of promote this type of thinking - or lack of it.

Taking risks.  Of course it's not necessarily a bad thing, but people need to be smart about it - they need to look at their track record and be more calculating in their risk taking.  They need to avoid rash haste - they need a plan.  Otherwise, you might increase your sorrows and increase the likelihood of more precipitation, in the form of tears.  I've learned this the hard way.  Precipitous people are very difficult to direct.

As to the spiritual fault of precipitation, or how it relates to the interior life, Garrigou-Lagrange has a section on that as well:

Properly speaking, what is precipitation? St. Thomas (11) defines it as a manner of acting by impulsion of the will or of the passion, without prudence, precaution, or sufficient consideration. It is a sin directly opposed to prudence and the gift of counsel. It leads to temerity in judgment and is comparable to the haste of one who descends a staircase too rapidly and falls, instead of walking composedly.
[...]

What are the causes of precipitation? As spiritual writers say, this defect comes from the fact that we substitute our own natural activity for the divine action. We act with feverish ardor, without sufficient reflection, without prayer for the light of the Holy Ghost, without the advice of our spiritual director. At times this natural haste is the cause of extremely imprudent acts that are very harmful in their results.

Natural haste often arises from the fact that we consider only the proximate end to be attained today, without seeing its relation to the supreme end toward which we must direct our steps. Seeing only this immediate human end, we direct our efforts toward it by natural. activity, without sufficient recourse to the help of God.

We can see in the training that Christ gave His apostles how often He warned them against this precipitation or natural haste, which causes a man to act without sufficient reflection and without a sufficiently great spirit of faith. - Read more.

Art: Detail: Van Der Weyden, Descent from the Cross

Preparing for Holy Communion.

There was a time when people used to prepare for Holy Communion, not only by a longer, stricter fast, but by prayer before Mass, and of course, confession.  Likewise, many people remained after Mass to make a prolonged thanksgiving after Communion.  People approached to receive with great reverence, something noticeably lacking in most churches today.  If the solemnity of receiving Holy Communion was restored, I doubt just anyone would approach without deep recollection of what is taking place, and who it is they are receiving.  Despite the increase in adoration chapels, I'm not sure Eucharistic piety and reverence for the Blessed Sacrament is widely understood.

	CONDITIONS OF A GOOD COMMUNION The conditions of a good communion are indicated in the decree (December 20, 1905) by which Pope Pius X exhorted all the faithful to frequent Communion. This decree recalls first of all this principle: "The sacraments of the New Law, while acting ex opere operato, nevertheless produce a greater effect by reason of the more perfect dispositions of those who receive them. . . . Care must be taken, therefore, that an attentive preparation precede Holy Communion and that a suitable thanksgiving follow it, taking into consideration the faculties and condition of each person." "If thou didst know the gift of God!" John 4: 10

Formerly to show the necessity of thanksgiving, people were told how St. Philip Neri had two altar boys, carrying lighted candles, accompany a lady who left the church immediately after the end of the Mass during which she had received Holy Communion. How many times this well deserved lesson was told, and how often it bore fruit! But nowadays people have acquired the habit of treating almost everybody, superiors as well as equals and inferiors, and even our Lord Himself, with easy familiarity. If this abuse continues, there will be, as someone has said, many Communions and few real communicants. If zealous souls do not set to work to stop this habit of unconcern, it will go on increasing, gradually destroying all spirit of mortification and of true and solid piety. And yet Christ Himself is ever the same, and our duty of gratitude toward Him has not changed. - Garrigou Lagrange